Teach Yourself Logic: a Study Guide

Peter Smith
University of Cambridge
March 22, 2014
Version 10.0

Pass it on, . . . . Thats the game I want you to learn. Pass it on.
Alan Bennett, The History Boys

The latest version of this Guide can always be downloaded from

logicmatters.net/students/tyl/
URLs in blue are live links to external web-pages or PDF documents. Internal
cross-references to sections etc. are also live. But to avoid the text being covered in
ugly red rashes these internal links are not coloured if you are reading onscreen, your
cursor should change as you hover over such live links: try here.

Contents
Version history
0

iii

Introduction
0.1 Why this Guide for philosophers? . . . .
0.2 Why this Guide for mathematicians too?
0.3 Choices, choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
0.4 The shape of the Guide . . . . . . . . . .
0.5 A general reading strategy . . . . . . . .
0.6 Other preliminary points . . . . . . . . .

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1
1
1
2
2
4
4

Before we start
1.1 Logical geography . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Assumed background: baby logic
1.3 Do you really need more logic? . .
1.4 How to prove it . . . . . . . . . .

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6
6
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9
10

First-order logic
2.1 Getting to grips with first-order logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 The main recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Some other texts for first-order logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12
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15
17

Basic Mathematical Logic

3.1 Second-order logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 From first-order logic to elementary model theory
3.3 Computability and G
odelian incompleteness . . .
3.4 Beginning set theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Variant Logics (of particular interest to philosophers)

4.1 Getting started with modal logic . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Other classical extensions and variants . . . . . . . . .
4.2.1 Free Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.2 Plural logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 Non-classical variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3.1 Intuitionist logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3.2 Relevance logics (and wilder logics too) . . . .

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30
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Exploring Further
5.1 How to use this chapter, and the menu . .
5.2 Aside: next steps beyond the modal basics
5.3 Proof theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4 Beyond the model-theoretic basics . . . . .
5.4.1 Standard model theory . . . . . . .
5.4.2 A digression on finite model theory
5.5 Computability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.1 Computable functions . . . . . . .
5.5.2 Computational complexity . . . . .

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36
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5.6
5.7
5.8

G
odelian incompleteness again . . . . . . . .
Theories of arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Serious set theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.1 ZFC, with all the bells and whistles
5.8.2 The Axiom of Choice . . . . . . . . .
5.8.3 Alternative set theories . . . . . . . .
5.9 Constructivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.10 Category theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A The
A.1
A.2
A.3
A.4
A.5
A.6
A.7
A.8
A.9
A.10
A.11
A.12
A.13
A.14
A.15
A.16
A.17

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Big Books on Mathematical Logic (work in progress)

Kleene, 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mendelson, 1964, 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Shoenfield, 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kleene, 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Robbin, 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Enderton, 1972, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ebbinghaus, Flum and Thomas, 1978, 1994 . . . . . . . . . .
Van Dalen, 1980, 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Prestel and Delzell, 1986, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Johnstone, 1987 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hodel, 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Goldstern and Judah, 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leary, 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Forster, 2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hedman, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hinman, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chiswell and Hodges, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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ii

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Version history
I realize that it does seem a bit pretentious to talk of a version history ! But on the
other hand, if you have seen some earlier incarnation(s) of this Guide, you might well
want to know whats changed so you can skim through to the new bits. Here then are
some notes about how things are evolving, starting from Version 9.0, when the Guide
first took something like its current form. New readers should just go straight to the
Introduction.
Version 10.0: mid-March 2014 The increment in the main version number marks
that the structure of the Guide has significantly changed again. The key section
on basic first-order logic at the beginning of the mathematical logic chapter was
getting more and more sprawling: it has now been hived off into a separate chapter,
divided into sections, and further expanded. My sense is that quite a few readers
are particularly interested in getting advice on this first step after baby logic, so
nearly all the effort in this particular revision of the Guide has been concentrated
on making improvements here.
Version 9.4: mid-December 2013 There has been another quite significant restructuring of the Guide. The material in the old Chapter 2 on The Basics has been
re-ordered, and is now split into two chapters, one on the classical mathematical
logic mainstream curriculum, the other on variant logics (which are mostly likely
to be of interest to philosophers). Hopefully, this further chunking up of the Guide
will make it look a smidgin less daunting! And by more clearly demarcating topics in the standard mathematical logic curriculum from supplementary topics, it
should be easier for readers with different interests to find their way around.
Also new in this version, there are some overdue comments on Peter Johnstones
Notes on Logic and Set Theory (good), Keith Devlins The Joy of Sets (good),
Theodore Siders Logic for Philosophy (not so good), and Richard Hodels An
Introduction to Mathematical Logic (patchy).
Version 9.3: mid-November 2013 There are additions to 2.8 on Beginning Set Theory. In the Appendix, there is now a note on Alexander Prestell and Charles N.
Delzells Mathematical Logic and Model Theory: A Brief Introduction (1986), and
a longer entry on Thomas Forsters Logic, Induction and Sets (2003). But the major addition to the Appendix, which also leads to some changes and additions in
earlier parts of the Guide, is a belated substantial entry on Peter G. Hinmans
doorstopper of a book, Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic (2005).
Version 9.2: September 2013 External links in this document are now coloured blue
(internal cross-references are live links too, but for aesthetic reasons arent also
coloured). Apart from minor tidying, and a brief new note on Tourlakiss Theory of
Computation (2012), the main changes are entries in the Big Books Appendix on
van Dalen (1980/2012) and Hedman (2004), and some consequent earlier changes.
iii

Version 9.1: June 2013 There are minor revisions in phrasing scattered throughout.
1.2 has been rearranged and a suggestion added: 1.4 on Vellemans book is new.
Substantial entries have been added to the Big Books Appendix on Enderton
(1972, 2002), Leary (2000) and Chiswell and Hodges (2007). These new entries
have in turn led to a number of changes earlier, in particular in 2.2 where those
books are initially mentioned. There are brief new entries too in 4.3.2, 5.3, 5.8.1.
Version 9.0: April 2013 The Guide has been significantly restructured, hence the
jump in Version number. The old Introduction has been split into a shorter Introduction and a new Chapter 1, which now has a section mapping out how the field
of logic divides into areas and also has an expanded section on the baby logic
which the rest of the Guide assumes philosophers will already know.
Chapter 2, on the basics, is largely unchanged. The order of the next two segments of the Guide has been inverted: The Big Books chapter now comes last,
relabelled as an Appendix (but otherwise also unchanged in this version). But Exploring further, now Chapter 3, has been greatly expanded by about 15 pages and
is in its first reasonably complete(?) form.
Links to external web-pages are now live.

iv

Chapter 0

Introduction
Note to new readers If you are hoping for help with really introductory logic (e.g. as
encountered by philosophers in their first-year courses), then Im afraid this Guide isnt
designed for you. The only section that pertains to baby logic is 1.2; all the rest is
about rather more advanced and eventually very much more advanced material.

0.1

Why this Guide for philosophers?

It is an odd phenomenon, and a rather depressing one too. Serious logic is seemingly
taught less and less, at least in UK philosophy departments, even at graduate level. Yet
logic itself is, of course, no less an exciting and intrinsically rewarding subject than it
ever was, and the amount of good formally-informed work in philosophy is ever greater
as time goes on. Moreoever, logic is far too important to be left entirely to the mercies
of technicians from maths or computer science departments with different agendas (who
often reveal an insouciant casualness about conceptual details that will matter to the
philosophical reader).
So how is a competence in logic to be passed on if there are not enough courses, or
are none at all? It seems that many beginning graduate students in philosophy if they
are not to be quite dismally uneducated in logic and so be cut off from working in some
of the most exciting areas of their discipline will need to teach themselves from books,
either solo or (much better) by organizing their own study groups. Thats perhaps no
real hardship, as there are some wonderful books out there. But what to read? Logic
books can have a very long shelf life, and one shouldnt at all dismiss older texts: so
theres more than a fifty year span of publications to select from. I have just counted
some three hundred formal logic books of one kind or another on my own shelves and
of course these are only a selection.
Philosophy students evidently need a Study Guide if they are to find their way around
the available literature old and new: this is my (on-going, still developing) attempt to
provide one.

0.2

Why this Guide for mathematicians too?

The situation of logic teaching in mathematics departments can also be pretty dire.
Indeed there are full university maths courses in good UK universities with precisely
zero courses on logic or set theory (let alone e.g. category theory), and I believe that the

situation is equally patchy in many other places.

So again, if you want to teach yourself some logic, where should you start? What are
the topics you might want to cover? What textbooks are likely to prove accessible and
tolerably enjoyable and rewarding to work through? Again, this Guide or at least, the
sections on the core mathematical logic curriculum will give you some pointers.
True enough, this is written by someone who has apart from a few guest minicourses taught in a philosophy department, and who is no research mathematician.
Which probably gives a distinctive tone to the Guide and certainly explains why it
ranges into areas of logic of special interest to philosophers. Still, mathematics remains
my first love, and these days it is mathematicians whom I get to hang out with. A large
number of the books I recommend are very definitely paradigm mathematics texts. So I
shouldnt be leading you too astray.

0.3

Choices, choices

So what has guided my choices of what to recommend in this Guide?

Different people find different expository styles congenial. For example, what is agreeably discursive for one reader is irritatingly verbose and slow-moving for another. For
myself, I do particularly like books that are good on conceptual details and good at
explaining the motivation for the technicalities while avoiding needless complications or
misplaced rigour, though I do like elegance too. Given the choice, I tend to prefer a
treatment that doesnt rush too fast to become too general, too abstract, and thereby
obscures underlying ideas.
The following choices of books no doubt reflect these tastes. But overall, I dont think
that I have been downright idiosyncratic. Nearly all the books I particularly recommend
will very widely be agreed to have significant virtues (even if some logicians would have
different preference-orderings).

0.4

The shape of the Guide

My conception of the character and shape of the Guide has evolved (or at least, it
has mutated) as Ive gone along, and it does show signs of continuing to grow rather
alarmingly. The latest version can always be found at www.logicmatters.net/students/tyl.
The Guide is now divided into four main Chapters and an Appendix:
The short Chapter 1 says something introductory about the lie of the land, indicating the various subfields of logic comprising both the traditional mathematical
logic curriculum and also noting other areas such as modal logic which are perhaps
of special interest to some philosophers. This initial map of the territory explains
why Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are structured as they are.
Chapter 1 also suggests some preliminary reading; this is aimed at those with
little or no mathematical background who might benefit from a gentle warm-up
before tackling the recommendations in later chapters. This reading may indeed
already provide philosophers with enough for their purposes. I certainly think that
any philosopher should know this little amount, but these modest preliminaries
are not really the topic of this Guide. Our concern is with the serious stuff that
lies beyond, of somewhat more specialized interest.

 Chapters 2 and 3 will then be, for many readers, the core chapters of the Guide.
Chapter 2 covers basic first-order logic (at a level a step up from what philosophers
will have met in baby logic courses). Nearly everything later depends on this, so it
is absolutely imperative to really get on top of this material.
Chapter 3 looks at more-or-less-introductory readings on each of the remaining
basic subfields of mathematical logic (at, roughly speaking, an advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student level for philosophers, or equivalently at
a middling-to-upper undergraduate level for mathematicians).
Most of Chapter 4 on Variant Logics will be primarily of interest to philosophers.
Do note that a number of the topics, like modal logic, are in fact quite approachable
even if you know fairly little logic. So the fact that the material in this chapter is
mentioned after the mathematical logic topics in the previous two chapters does
not reflect a jump in difficulty: far from it.
The introductory books mentioned in the Chapters 2, 3 and 4 already contain numerous pointers to further reading, enough to put you in a position to continue exploring solo. But Chapter 5 adds more suggestions for narrower-focus forays deeper
into various subfields, Exploring Further by looking at more advanced work, or
at work on topics outside the basic menu. This is probably mostly for specialist
graduate students (among philosophers) and final year undergraduate/beginning
graduate students (among mathematicians).
Appendix A is by way of a supplement, considering some of The Big Books on
mathematical logic. These are typically broader-focus books that cover the basic
first-order logic reviewed in Chapter 2 together with one or more subfields from the
further menu of mathematical logic at around the level reached in the Chapter 3
readings (or going perhaps rather beyond). Sensibly choosing among them, some
of these books can provide very useful consolidating/amplifying reading.
This final chapter is slowly growing into what will probably become a rather long
list of mini-reviews. Partly it is written for my own satisfaction, as I occasionally revisit some old friends and take a closer look at other books that have sat unregarded
on my shelves. But Ive also been spurred on by readers: initial versions of this
Guide prompted quite a few enquiries of the kind Do you recommend X?, or We
are using Y as a course text: I dont like it that much, what do you think?. The
Appendix is often much more critical in tone than the previous chapters.
The geographical map in 1.1, together with the overall table of contents for the
Guide, should give you a good sense of how I am chunking up the broad field of logic
into subfields (in a fairly conventional way). Of course, even the horizontal divisions
into different areas can in places be a little arbitrary. And the vertical division between
the entry-level readings in earlier chapters and the further explorations in Chapter 5 is
evidently going to be a lot more arbitrary. I think that everyone will agree (at least in
retrospect!) that e.g. the elementary theory of ordinals and cardinals belongs to the basics
of set theory, while explorations of large cardinals or independence proofs via forcing
are decidedly advanced. But in most areas, there are far fewer natural demarcation lines
between the basics and more advanced work.
Still, it is surely very much better to have some such structuring than to heap
everything together. And I hope the vertical divisions between chapters will help to
make the size of this ever-growing Guide seem quite a bit less daunting.
In fact, you should probably stick to Chapters 2 and 3 and maybe (depending on your
interests) parts of Chapter 4 at the outset they cover the sorts of logical topics that
3

should be readily accessible to the enthusiastic logic-minded philosophy undergraduate

or beginning graduate student, and accessible a year or two earlier in their education to
mathematicians.
You can then proceed in two ways. As indicated, Chapter 5 is there in case you
find yourself captivated by some particular topic(s) in logic, and want to pursue things
further (or investigate new topics). But not an exclusive alternative, of course! you
might well want to review and consolidate some of the earlier material by looking at
two or three of the big single (or jointly) authored multi-topic books which aim to cover
some or all of the basic standard menu of courses in mathematical logic: Appendix A
reviews some of the options (and mentions a few other books besides).
Within sections in Chapters 25, I have put the main recommendations into what
strikes me as a sensible reading order of increasing difficulty (without of course supposing
you will want to read everything!). And some further books are listed in asides or
postscripts. Again, the fine details of the orderings, and the decisions about what to put
in asides or postscripts, can all no doubt be warmly debated: people really do get quite
heated about this kind of thing.

0.5

A general reading strategy

I very strongly recommend tackling an area of logic (or indeed any new area of mathematics) by reading a series of books which overlap in level (with the next one covering
some of the same ground and then pushing on from the previous one), rather than trying
to proceed by big leaps.
In fact, I probably cant stress this advice too much (which is why I am highlighting it here in a separate section). For this approach will really help to reinforce and
deepen understanding as you re-encounter the same material from different angles, with
different emphases. The multiple overlaps in coverage in the lists below are therefore
fully intended, and this explains why the lists are longer rather than shorter. You will
certainly miss a lot if you concentrate on just one text in a given area, especially at
the outset. Cultivate the habit of judicious skipping and skimming so that you can read
enough in the end to build up a good overall picture of an area seen from various angles.

0.6

Other preliminary points

(a) Mathematics is not merely a spectator sport: you should try some of the exercises
in the books as you read along to check and reinforce comprehension. On the other
hand, dont obsess about doing exercises if you are a philosopher understanding proof
ideas is very much the crucial thing, not the ability to roll-your-own proofs. And even
mathematicians shouldnt get too hung up on routine exercises (unless you have specific
exams to prepare for!): concentrate on the exercises that look interesting and/or might
deepen understanding.
Do note however that some authors have the irritating(?) habit of burying important
results in the exercises, mixed in with routine homework, so it is often worth skimming
through the exercises even if you dont plan to tackle many of them.
(b) Nearly all the books mentioned here should be held by any university library which
has been paying reasonable attention to maintaining a core collection in the area of logic
(and any book should be borrowable through your interlibrary loans system). Certainly,
4

if some recommended books from Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are not on the shelves, do make
sure your library orders them (in my experience, university librarians overwhelmed by
the number of publications, strapped for cash, and too familiar with the never-borrowed
purchase are only too happy to get informed recommendations of books which are
reliably warranted actually to be useful and used).
Since Im not assuming you will be buying personal copies, I have not made cost or
even being currently in print a significant consideration: indeed it has to be said that the
list price of some of the books is just ridiculous. (Though second-hand copies of some
books at better prices might be available via Amazon sellers or from abebooks.com.)
However, I have marked with one star* books that are available at a reasonable price
(or at least are unusually good value for the length and/or importance of the book), and
marked with two stars** those books for which e-copies are freely (and legally!) available
and URLs are provided here.1 Most articles can also be downloaded, again with URLs
supplied.
(c) And yes, the references here are very largely to published books rather than to
on-line lecture notes etc. Many such notes are excellent, but they tend to be a bit terse
(as befits material intended to support a lecture course) and so perhaps not as helpful as
fully-worked-out book-length treatments for students needing to teach themselves. But
Im sure that there is an increasing number of excellent e-resources out there which do
amount, more or less, to free stand-alone textbooks. Id be very happy indeed to get
recommendations about the best.
(d) Finally, the earliest versions of this Guide kept largely to positive recommendations:
I didnt pause to explain the reasons for the then absence of some well-known books. This
was partly due to considerations of length which have now quite gone by the wayside; but
also I wanted to keep the tone enthusiastic, rather than to start criticizing or carping.
However, as Ive already noted, enough people have asked what I think about the
classic X, or asked why the old warhorse Y wasnt mentioned, to change my mind. So
I have occasionally added especially in Appendix A some reasons why I dont particularly recommended certain books. I should perhaps emphasize that these relatively
negative assessments are probably more contentious than the positive ones.

Note that some print-on-demand titles can be acquired for significantly less than the official publishers price check Amazon sellers. We will have to pass over in silence the issue of illegal file-sharing
of PDFs of e.g. out-of-print books: most students will know the possibilities here.

Chapter 1

Before we start
1.1

Logical geography

Logic is a big field. It is of concern to philosophers, mathematicians and computer scientists. Different constituencies will be particularly interested in different areas and give
different emphases. For example, modal logic is of considerable interest to some philosophers, but also parts of this sub-discipline are of concern to computer scientists too.
Set theory (which falls within the purview of mathematical logic, broadly understood)
is an active area of research interest in mathematics, but because of its (supposed)
foundational status is of interest to philosophers too. Finite model theory is of interest
to mathematicians and computer scientists, but perhaps not so much to philosophers.
Type theory started off as a device of philosophy-minded logicians looking to avoid the
paradoxes: it has become primarily the playground of computer scientists. And so it
goes.
In this Guide, Im going to have to let the computer scientists largely look after
themselves! Our focus is going to be the areas of logic of most interest to philosophers
and mathematicians, if only because thats what I know a little about. Here, then, is a
very rough-and-ready initial map to the ground surveyed in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. We
start with fundamentals at the top. Then the left hand branch highlights some areas that
are likely to be of interest to philosophers and (mostly) not so much to mathematicians:
the right hand part covers the traditional Mathematical Logic curriculum in advanced
(graduate level?) philosophy courses and not-so-advanced mathematics courses.
(Assumed background: Baby logic)

First order logic

Modal logic

Second order logic

More model theory

Classical variations

Computability, incompleteness

Non-classical variations

Beginning set theory

6

The dashed lines between the three blocks on the left indicate that they are roughly on
the same level and can initially be tackled in any order; likewise for the three blocks on
the right.
In a bit more detail (though dont worry at all if at this stage you dont understand
much of the jargon):
By Baby logic, which I say just a little more about in the next section of this
chapter, I mean the sort of thing that is in elementary formal logic courses for
philosophers or is perhaps covered in passing in a discrete mathematics course:
truth-functional logic (the truth-table test for validity, usually a first look at some
formal proof system as well), an introduction to the logic of quantifiers (giving
at least a familiarity with translation to and from quantified wffs and an informal initial understanding of the semantics for quantifiers), and perhaps also an
introduction to set theoretic notation and the ideas of relations, functions, etc.
First-order logic means a reasonably rigorous treatment of quantification theory,
studying both a proof-system (or two) for classical logic, and the standard classical
semantics, getting as far as a soundness and completeness proof for your favourite
proof system, and perhaps taking a first look at e.g. the Lowenheim-Skolem theorems, etc. This is covered in Chapter 2.
After briefly looking at second-order logic, we go down the right-hand column, to
take in the three substantial elements (after core first-order logic) which go in
various proportions to make up the traditional Mathematical Logic curriculum
and which form the topics of Chapter 3. First, and pretty continuous with our
initial study of first-order logic, there is just a little more model theory, i.e. a little
more exploration of the fit between theories cast framed in formal languages and
the structures they are supposed to be about.
Next theres an introduction to the ideas of mechanical computability and decidability, and proofs of epochal results such as Godels incompleteness theorems.
(This is perhaps the most readily approachable area of mathematical logic.)
Then we start work on set theory.
Now we move on to the left-hand column of logic-mainly-for-philosophers, covered
in Chapter 4. Even before encountering a full-on-treatment of first-order logic,
philosophers are often introduced to modal logic (the logic of necessity and possibility) and to its possible world semantics. You can indeed do an amount of
propositional modal logic with no more than baby logic as background.
Further down that left-hand column we meet some variations/extensions of standard logic which are of conceptual interest but which are still classical in favour
(e.g. free logic, plural logic).
Then there are non-classical variations, of which perhaps the most important and
the one of interest to mathematicians too is intuitionist logic (which drops the law
of excluded middle, motivated by a non-classical understanding of the significance
of the logical operators). We could also mention e.g. relevant logics which drop the
classical rule that a contradiction entails anything.
To repeat, dont be alarmed if (some of) those descriptions are at the moment pretty
opaque to you: we will be explaining things a little more as we go through the Guide.
And as I said, you probably shouldnt take the way our map divides logic into its fields
7

too seriously. Still, the map should be a helpful initial guide to the structure of the next
three chapters of this Guide.

1.2

Assumed background: baby logic

If you are a mathematician, you should probably just dive straight into the next chapter
on the basics of first-order logic without further ado.
If you are a philosopher without a mathematical background, however, you will almost certainly need to have already done some formal logic if you are going to cope.
And if you have only taken a course using some really, really, elementary text book like
Sam Guttenplans The Languages of Logic, Howard Kahanes Logic and Philosophy, or
Patrick Hurleys Concise Introduction to Logic, then you might struggle (though these
things are hard to predict). If you do only have such a very limited base to work from,
it might be a good idea to take a look at some more substantial but still introductory
book before pursuing things any further with serious logic.
Here then are couple of initial suggestions of books that start from scratch again but
do go far enough to provide a good foundation for further work:
1. My Introduction to Formal Logic* (CUP 2003, corrected reprint 2013): for more
details see www.logicmatters.net/ifl, where there are also answers to the exercises).
This is intended for beginners, and was the first year text in Cambridge for a
decade. It was written as an accessible teach-yourself book, covering propositional
and predicate logic by trees. But it gets as far as a completeness proof for the
tree system of predicate logic without identity.
2. Paul Tellers A Modern Formal Logic Primer** (Prentice Hall 1989) predates my
book, is now out of print, but is freely available online at tellerprimer.ucdavis.edu,
which makes it unbeatable value! It is in many ways quite excellent, and had I
known about it at the time (or listened to Pauls good advice, when I got to know
him, about how long it takes to write an intro book), Im not sure that Id have
written my own book, full of good things though it is! As well as introducing trees,
Teller also covers a version of Fitch-style natural deduction (I didnt have the page
allowance to do this, regrettably). Like me, he also gets as far as a completeness
proof. Notably user-friendly. Answers to exercises are available at the website.
Of course, those are just two possibilities from very many. I have not latterly kept up
with the seemingly never-ending flow of books of entry-level introductory logic books,
some of which are no doubt excellent too, though there are also some poor books out
there. Mathematicians should be particularly warned that some of the books on discrete
mathematics cover elementary logic pretty badly. And there are also more books like
Guttenplans that will probably not get philosophers to the starting line as far as this
Guide is concerned. This is not the place, however, to discuss lots more options for
elementary texts. I will mention here just two other books:
3. I have been asked a number of times about Jon Barwise and John Etchemendys
widely used Language, Proof and Logic (CSLI Publications, 1999; 2nd edition 2011
for more details, see http://ggweb.stanford.edu/lpl/toc). The unique selling point
for the book is that it comes with a CD of programs, including a famous one by
the authors called Tarskis World in which you build model worlds and can query
whether various first-order sentences are true of them. Some students really like
it, and but at least equally many dont find this kind of thing particularly useful.
8

And I believe that the CD cant be registered to a second owner, so you have to
buy the book new to get the full advantage.
On the positive side, this is another book which is in many respects user-friendly,
goes slowly, and does Fitch-style natural deduction. It is a respectable option. But
Teller is rather snappier, and no less clear, and wins on price!
4. Nicholas Smiths recent Logic: The Laws of Truth (Princeton UP 2012) is very
clearly written and seems to have many virtues. The first two parts of the book
overlap very largely with mine (it too introduces logic by trees). But the third
part ranges wider, including natural deduction indeed the coverage goes as far as
Bostocks book, mentioned below in 2.2. It seems a particularly readable addition
to the introductory literature. Answers to exercises can be found at http://wwwpersonal.usyd.edu.au/njjsmith/lawsoftruth/

1.3

Do you really need more logic?

This section is for philosophers! It is perhaps worth pausing to ask such readers if they
are sure especially if they already worked through a book like mine or Paul Tellers
whether they really do want or need to pursue things much further, at least in a detailed,
formal, way. Far be it from me to put people off doing more logic: perish the thought!
But for many purposes, you can survive by just reading the likes of
1. David Papineau, Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Sets
(OUP 2012). From the publishers description: This book is designed to explain
the technical ideas that are taken for granted in much contemporary philosophical
writing. . . . The first section is about sets and numbers, starting with the membership relation and ending with the generalized continuum hypothesis. The second
is about analyticity, a prioricity, and necessity. The third is about probability, outlining the difference between objective and subjective probability and exploring
aspects of conditionalization and correlation. The fourth deals with metalogic, focusing on the contrast between syntax and semantics, and finishing with a sketch
of G
odels theorem.
Or better since perhaps Papineau gives rather too brisk an overview you could rely
on
2. Eric Steinhart, More Precisely: The Math You Need to Do Philosophy (Broadview
2009) The author writes: The topics presented . . . include: basic set theory; relations and functions; machines; probability; formal semantics; utilitarianism; and
infinity. The chapters on sets, relations, and functions provide you with all you
need to know to apply set theory in any branch of philosophy. The chapter of
machines includes finite state machines, networks of machines, the game of life,
and Turing machines. The chapter on formal semantics includes both extensional
semantics, Kripkean possible worlds semantics, and Lewisian counterpart theory.
The chapter on probability covers basic probability, conditional probability, Bayes
theorem, and various applications of Bayes theorem in philosophy. The chapter on
utilitarianism covers act utilitarianism, applications involving utility and probability (expected utility), and applications involving possible worlds and utility. The
chapters on infinity cover recursive definitions, limits, countable infinity, Cantors
diagonal and power set arguments, uncountable infinities, the aleph and beth numbers, and definitions by transfinite recursion. More Precisely is designed both as a
9

text book and reference book to meet the needs of upper level undergraduates and
graduate students. It is also useful as a reference book for any philosopher working
today.
Steinharts book is admirable, and will give many philosophers a handle on some technical ideas going beyond baby logic and which they really should know just a little about,
without the hard work of doing a real logic course. Whats not to like?

1.4

How to prove it

Assuming, however, that you do want to learn more serious logic, before getting down
to business in the next chapter, let me mention one other rather different and oftenrecommended book:
Daniel J. Velleman, How to Prove It: A Structured Approach (CUP, 2nd edition,
2006). From the Preface: Students of mathematics . . . often have trouble the first
time that theyre asked to work seriously with mathematical proofs, because they
dont know the rules of the game. What is expected of you if you are asked to
prove something? What distinguishes a correct proof from an incorrect one? This
book is intended to help students learn the answers to these questions by spelling
out the underlying principles involved in the construction of proofs.
There are chapters on the propositional connectives and quantifiers, and informal proofstrategies for using them, and chapters on relations and functions, a chapter on mathematical induction, and a final chapter on infinite sets (countable vs. uncountable sets).
This truly excellent student text could well be of use both to some (many?) philosophers
and to some mathematicians reading this Guide. By the way, if you want to check your
answers to exercises, you will find a long series of blog posts starting at http://technoteshimanshu.blogspot.co.at/2010/04/how-to-prove-it-intro-exercises.html useful.
True, if you are a mathematics student who has got to the point of embarking on
an upper level undergraduate course in some area of mathematical logic, you should
certainly have already mastered nearly all the content of Vellemans splendidly clear
book. However, an afternoon or two skimming through this text (except perhaps for the
very final section), pausing over anything that doesnt look very comfortably familiar,
could still be time extremely well spent.
What if you are a philosophy student who (as we are assuming) has done some baby
logic? Well, experience shows that being able to handle formal tree-proofs or natural
deduction proofs doesnt always translate into being able to construct good informal
proofs. For example, one of the few meta-theoretic results usually met in a baby logic
course is the expressive completeness of the set of formal connectives t^, _, u. The
(informal!) proof of this result is really easy, based on a simple proof-idea. But many
students who can ace the part of the end-of-course exam asking for quite complex formal
proofs find themselves all at sea when asked to replicate this informal bookwork proof.
Another example: it is only too familiar to find philosophy students introduced to set
notation not even being able to make a start on a good informal proof that ttau, ta, buu
tta1 u, ta1 , b1 uu if and only if a a1 and b b1 .
Well, if you are one of those students who jumped through the formal hoops but were
unclear about how to set out elementary mathematical proofs (from the meta-theory
theory of baby logic, or from baby set theory), then again working through Vellemans
book from the beginning could be just what you need to get you prepared for the serious
10

study of logic. And even if you were one of those comfortable with the informal proofs, you
will probably still profit from skipping and skimming through (perhaps paying especial
attention to the chapter on mathematical induction).

11

Chapter 2

First-order logic
And so, at long last, down to work! This chapter begins with
2.1 A very brief outline of what you need to know about the fundamentals of first-order
logic (FOL).
We then continue with . . .
2.2 The main recommendations of books for starting first-order logic.
2.3 Some other positive recommendations, with a postscript of some more negative
comments on other books.
We will take this slowly, in some detail, as obviously it is very important to get these
foundations securely in place before doing moving on to anything more exotic.

2.1

Getting to grips with first-order logic

A reminder for philosophers: We are assuming that you have already done some baby
logic (e.g. you have encountered quantifiers before, know how to translate in and out
of quantifier-variable notation, maybe have encountered a proof-system). There are now
four tasks: (i) To nail down more securely your initial understanding of FOL. (ii) To push
on as far as a completeness proof for some specific deductive system. (iii) To develop an
initial appreciation of how other different styles of logical proof-systems work. (iv) To
get used to the more mathematical mode of presentation that you find in books that go
beyond baby logic.
A reminder for mathematicians: You have probably already seen fragments of logical
notation (and maybe a bit more) scattered through elementary mathematics courses,
and you have met a few logical ideas, but havent yet done a logic course. So there are
now two tasks: (i1 ) To work through a first systematic treatment of FOL. (ii1 ) Looking
sideways from your initial main textbook, to develop an initial appreciation of how
alternative styles of logical proof-systems work.
Both philosophers and mathematicians will probably already have a rough idea of
what these tasks are likely to involve, given their background (however fragmentary) in
baby logic. But it may be worth spelling things out just a little though dont worry if
at present you dont fully grasp the import of all of these bullet points:
Starting with syntax, you obviously need to know how first-order languages are
constructed. And now you need to be able to prove things that you previously
12

took for granted, e.g. that bracketing works, meaning that ever wff has a unique
parsing (a unique construction tree).
Two variants to look out for: some syntaxes typographically distinguish variables
from parameters; some syntaxes not only have a primitive absurdity sign K but
take negation to be defined rather than primitive (by putting def K).
Note too that baby logic courses for philosophers often ignore functions; but
given that FOL is deployed to regiment everyday mathematical reasoning, and that
functions are crucial to mathematics, function expressions now become centrally
important.
On the semantic side, you need to understand the idea of first-order structures
and the idea of an interpretation of a language in such a structure. Youll need,
of course, a proper formal semantic story with the bells and whistles required
to cope with quantifiers adequately (I say a story as again there are variants
on the market).1 Once you know what it takes for sentences to be true on an
interpretation, youll be able to give a formal account of, and prove results about,
semantic entailment: ( if every interpretation which makes the sentences in
true makes true. (Another variation to look out for: does your story extend
to allowing the semantic entailment relation to apply to non-sentences, wffs with
variables dangling free?)
Back to syntax: you need to get to know one deductive proof-system for FOL
reasonably well, and you ought ideally (and at quite an early stage) acquire at
least a glancing acquaintance with some alternatives. But where to concentrate
your efforts? It is surely natural to give centre stage, at least at the outset, to
so-called natural deduction systems.
The key feature of natural deduction systems is that they allow us to make
temporary assumptions for the sake of argument and then later discharge them
(as we do all the time in everyday reasoning, mathematical or otherwise). Different
formal natural deduction systems then offer different ways of handling temporary
assumptions and of showing where in the argument they get discharged. Suppose,
for example, we want to show that from pP ^ Qq we can infer pP Qq (where
, ^ and are of course our symbols for, respectively, not, and, and [roughly]
implies.) Then one way of laying out a natural deduction proof would be like this
(a so-called Fitch-style layout) where we have added informal commentary on
the right:
1

pP ^ Qq

premiss

supposition for the sake of argument

Q

additional supposition for the sake of argument

pP ^ Qq

from 2, 3 by and-introduction

marking that 1 and 4 give us a contradiction

6
7
8

Q
Q
pP Qq

supposition 3 must be false, given 1 and 2, by reductio

from 6, eliminating the double negation
if the supposition 2 is true, so is 7.

For cognoscenti: the stories vary along two dimensions. Do we augment an interpretation of the
language by assigning (temporary) values to the variables already in the language or to new constants
added to the language? Do we assign such values to all the variables/new constants at once, or only one
at a time as needed?

13

Here, the basic layout principle is that, whenever we make a new temporary assumption we indent the line of argument a column to the right (vertical bars
marking the indented columns), and whenever we discharge an assumption at the
top of an indented column we move back to the left.
An alternative layout (going back to Genzten) would display the same proof like
this, where the guiding idea is (roughly speaking) that a wff below an inference
line follows from what is immediately above it:
rP sp2q
r Qsp1q
pP ^ Qq

pP ^ Qq
K

(1)

Q
Q
pP Qq

(2)

Here labels are used to indicate where a supposition gets discharged, and the
supposition to be discharged gets bracketed off and also given the corresponding
label.
Fitch-style proofs are perhaps easier to use for beginners (indeed, we might say,
more natural, by virtue of more closely follow the basically linear style of ordinary
reasoning). But Gentzen-style proofs are preferred for more advanced work, and
thats what the natural deduction texts that Ill be mentioning use.
Next and for philosophers this is likely to be the key move beyond their baby
logic course, and for mathematicians this is probably the point at which things
get interesting you need to know how to prove a soundness and a completeness
theorem for your favourite deductive system for first-order logic. That is to say,
you need to be able to show that theres a deduction in your chosen system of a
conclusion from given premisses only if the inference is indeed semantically valid
(the system doesnt give false positives), and whenever an inference is valid theres
a formal deduction of the conclusion from the premisses (the system captures all
the semantically valid inferences).
As an optional bonus at this stage, it could be good to have a first glimpse of e.g.
the (downward) L
owenheim-Skolem theorem and the compactness theorem, i.e. to
have an initial engagement with some initial results of model theory, which flow
quickly from the completeness theorem.
Finally, you of course dont want to get confused by different proof-styles, but the
basic ideas driving the different styles are simple and easy to grasp. So it is in fact
quite safe to make initial acquaintance with at least a couple of other proof-styles
even at an early stage:
First, and historically very importantly, there are old-school Hilbert-style
axiomatic linear proof-systems. A standard such system for e.g. the propositional calculus has a single rule of inference (modus ponens) and a bunch of
axioms which can be called on at any stage in a proof. A proof is just a linear
sequence of wffs, each one of which is a given premiss, a logical axiom, or follows from earlier wffs in the sequence by modus ponens. Such systems in their
unadorned form are pretty horrible to work inside (proofs can be long and
very unobvious), even though their Bauhaus simplicity makes them easy to
theorize about from the outside. It does strike me as potentially off-putting,
14

even a bit masochistic, to concentrate primarily on axiomatic systems when

beginning serious logic; but for various reasons they are often used in more
advanced texts, so you certainly need to get to know about them sooner or
later.
It is also fun and illuminating to meet a tree (tableau) system if you havent
already done so (many philosophers get taught a tableau system first, as
such a system is relatively easy to manipulate and hence easy to teach
a computerized proof system too!). A tableau proof of the same illustrative
inference would run as follows:
pP ^ Qq
pP Qq
P
Q
H

H

HH


H

What we are doing here is starting with the given premiss and the negation
of the target conclusion, and we then proceed to unpack the implications of
these assumptions. In this case, for the second (negated-conditional) premiss
to be true, it must have a true antecedent and false consequent: while for
the first premiss to be true we have to consider cases (a false conjunction
must have at least one false conjunct but we dont know in advance which
to blame) which is why the tree splits. But as we pursue either branch we
immediately hit contradiction (conventionally marked with a star in tableau
systems), showing that we cant consistently have the premiss true and the
negation of the conclusion true too, so the inference is indeed valid.
So, with that menu of topics to pursue, where to begin?

2.2

The main recommendations

Lets start with three stand-out texts, which philosophers and mathematicians should
both find useful, taken in one order or the other.
The first book is by a philosopher and written with philosophy students particularly
in mind, as a just-past-baby-logic text that can be used as bridge leading you onwards
to more mathematical texts:
1. David Bostock, Intermediate Logic (OUP 1997). From the preface: The book is
confined to . . . what is called first-order predicate logic, but it aims to treat this
subject in very much more detail than a standard introductory text. In particular, whereas an introductory text will pursue just one style of semantics, just one
method of proof, and so on, this book aims to create a wider and a deeper understanding by showing how several alternative approaches are possible, and by
introducing comparisons between them. So this book aims to range rather more
widely than most baby logic texts. And Bostock does indeed usefully introduce
you to tableaux (trees) and an Hilbert-style axiomatic proof system and natural
deduction and even a so-called sequent calculus as well (as noted, it is important
to understand what is going on in these different kinds of proof-system). He proves
15

completeness for tableaux in particular, which I always think makes the needed
construction seem particularly natural. And he touches on issues of philosophical
interest such as free logic which are not often dealt with in other books at this level.
Still, the discussions remain at much the same level of conceptual/mathematical
difficulty as the later parts of Tellers book and my own. So Intermediate Logic
should be, as intended, particularly accessible to philosophers who havent done
much formal logic before and should, as I said, help ease the transition to more
advanced work.
Non-philosophers, however, or philosophers who waltzed easily through their baby
logic course, will probably prefer to start instead with the following text which while
only a small notch up in actual difficulty has a notably more mathematical look and
feel (being written by mathematicians) while still remaining particularly friendly and
approachable. It is also considerably shorter than Bostocks book, though lacking the
latters wide range.
2. Ian Chiswell and Wilfrid Hodges, Mathematical Logic (OUP 2007). Despite the
title, this is particularly accessible, very nicely written, and should be entirely
manageable even at this very early stage. Indeed if you cant cope with this lovely
book, then I do fear that serious logic might not be for you!
The headline news is that authors explore a (Gentzen-style) natural deduction
system. But by building things up in stages over three chapters so after propositional logic, they consider an interesting fragment of first-order logic before turning
to the full-strength version they make proofs of e.g. the completeness theorem
for first-order logic quite unusually manageable. For a more detailed description of
how they do this, see A.17.
Very warmly recommended for beginning the serious study of first-order logic.
(The book has brisk solutions to some exercises. A demerit mark to OUP for not
publishing C&H more cheaply.)
Next, complement C&H by reading the first half of
3. Christopher Learys A Friendly Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Prentice Hall
2000: currently out of print, but a slightly expanded new edition is being planned).
There is a great deal to like about this book. Chs. 13 do indeed make a very
friendly and helpful introduction to first-order logic, now done in axiomatic style,
in under 125 pages. Unusually, Leary dives straight into a full treatment of FOL
without spending an introductory chapter or two on propositional logic, which
means that you wont feel that you are labouring through the very beginnings
of logic one more time than is really necessary. The book is again written by a
mathematician for a mostly mathematical audience so some illustrations of ideas
can presuppose a smattering of elementary background mathematical knowledge;
but you will miss very little if you occasionally have to skip an example. I like the
tone very much indeed, and say more about this admirable book in A.13.
In sum, then, if your background is in philosophy, read Bostock first then carefully work
through C&H, followed by Leary to reinforce and expand your knowledge. If you are
more mathematically minded, proceed the other way about: work through C&H and
Leary and then skim quite a bit faster through Bostock for consolidation of some key
ideas and to get an impression of how some further proof-systems work.
Learys book might not be so widely available, however, so let me mention a good
alternative a much used fourth text which should be in any library:
16

4. Herbert Endertons A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (Academic Press 1972,

2002), which focuses on a Hilbert-style axiomatic system, is often regarded as a
classic of exposition. However, it does strike me as somewhat more difficult than
C&H, so Im not surprised that some report finding it a bit challenging as a student
if used by itself as a first text. It is a very admirable piece of work, however. And
it is another text whose proof-systems are axiomatic, so it should work well as
complementary reading following on from C&H. Read up to and including 2.5 or
2.6 at this stage. Later, you can finish the rest of that chapter to take you a bit
further into model theory. There is more about this book in the Appendix, A.6.
Finally in this section, I will mention one more book, and for two reasons. First it is a
modern classic which has gone through multiple editions, and hence should be in most
libraries, making it a useful natural-deduction based alternative to C&H if the latter
isnt available. Second, later chapters of this book are mentioned below as suggested
reading for more advanced work, so even if you have read C&H, it could well be worth
making early acquaintance with . . .
5. Dirk van Dalen, Logic and Structure* (Springer, 1980; 5th edition 2012). This is
half-a-notch up from C&H in terms of mathematical style/difficulty. And the book
isnt without its quirks and flaws, so I think it would be occasionally a slightly tough
going if taken from a standing start which is why I have recommended beginning
with C&H instead. However, mathematicians should be able to cope readily; and
even less mathematically minded philosophers should find van Dalens more rigorous mode of presentation quite manageable if they have already worked through
C&H. (Indeed the combination of the two books augmented by taking a quick
look at some axiomatic system would indeed make for an excellent foundation
in logic.) Read up to and including 3.2 at this stage. For a more extended review
of the whole book, see A.8.
Note to philosophers: If you have already carefully read and mastered the whole of
e.g. Tellers introductory baby-logic-plus-a-little book, the recommended reading in this
section wont in fact teach you very many more basic big ideas or major new results
(apart from introducing you to some entry-level model-theoretic notions like compactness
and the L-S theorems). However, as promised, you will begin to see this largely familiar
material being re-presented in the sort of mathematical style and with the sort of rigorous
detail that you will necessarily encounter more and more as you progress in logic, and
that you very much need to start feeling entirely comfortable with at an early stage.

2.3

Some other texts for first-order logic

The material covered in the last section is so very fundamental, and the alternative
options so very many, that I really need to say at least something about some other
books. The Appendix will tell you about how some other Big Books on mathematical
logic handle the basics. But in this section I will list in order of date of first publication
a small handful of books that have particular virtues of one kind or another, books that
will either make for illuminating parallel reading or will usefully extend your knowledge
of first-order logic or both. There follows a postscript where I respond to comments on
early versions of the Guide which asked why I didnt recommend certain texts.
We start with two golden oldies:

17

1. Raymond Smullyan, First-Order Logic* (Springer 1968, Dover Publications 1995).

is a short book, terse but absolutely packed with good things. In some ways,
this is the most sophisticated book Im mentioning at this stage. But enthusiasts
can try reading Parts I and II, just a hundred pages, after C&H. Those with a
taste for mathematical neatness should be able to cope with these chapters and
will appreciate their great elegance. This beautiful little book is the source of so
many modern treatments of logic based on tree/tableau systems, such as my own
though it packs in a lot more than I do at three times the length. Not always
easy as the book progresses, but wonderful.
2. Geoffrey Hunter, Metalogic* (Macmillan 1971, University of California Press 1992).
This is not groundbreaking in the way Smullyans book is, but rather is an exceptionally good early student textbook from a time when there were few to choose
from. Read Parts One to Three at this stage. And if you are enjoying it, then do
continue to finish the book, where it treats a formal theory of arithmetic and proves
the undecidability of first-order logic, topics we revisit in 3.3. Unfortunately, the
typography from pre-LATEX days isnt at all pretty to look at: this can make the
books pages appear rather unappealing. But in fact the treatment of an axiomatic
system of logic is in fact exceptionally clear and accessible. Still well worth blowing
the dust off your librarys copy.
Next we come to a classic presentation of logic via natural deduction:
3. Neil Tennant, Natural Logic** (Edinburgh UP 1978, 1990). Out of print, but freely
available from http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/tennant9/Natural Logic.pdf.
All credit to Tennant for writing the first textbook at its level which does
Gentzen-style natural deduction, a couple of years before van Dalen. Tennant
thinks that this approach to logic is philosophically highly significant, and in various ways this shows through. Although not as mathematical in look-and-feel as
van Dalen, this book also isnt always an easy read, despite its being intended as a
first logic text for philosophers. However, it is freely available to sample, and you
may well find it highly illuminating parallel reading to C&H.
Now for four more recent books:
4. Derek Goldreis Propositional and Predicate Calculus: A Model of Argument*
(Springer, 2005) is another exceptionally clear book written by a mathematician
for a mostly mathematical audience, using an axiomatic system. Unlike Leary, Goldrei does spent a gentle hundred pages on propositional logic (but done with some
sophistication). And unlike Leary who goes on to deal with Godels incompleteness
theorem, Goldrei only strays beyond the basics of FOL to touch on a few modeltheoretic ideas. But this means that the book can proceed at a pretty gentle pace,
and the resulting treatment as far as it goes strikes me as an unusually accessible
treatment. Anyone struggling a little with faster-paced books with an axiomatic
flavour, or who just wants a comfortingly manageable additional text, should find
this particularly useful. (If I have a very small complaint, Goldrei stays too fond
of subscripts on predicate letters etc. for too long but that shouldnt cause more
than a moments aesthetic grumbling! It shouldnt much affect ease of reading.)
5. Dont be put off by the title of Melvin Fittings First-Order Logic and Automated
Theorem Proving (Springer, 1990, 2nd end. 1996). Yes, at various places in the book
there are illustrations of how to implement various algorithms in Prolog. But you
can easily pick up the very small amount of background knowledge about Prolog
18

thats needed to follow whats going on (and thats a fun thing to do anyway) or
you can just skip.
As anyone who has tried to work inside an axiomatic system knows, proofdiscovery for such systems is hard. Which axiom-schema should we instantiate
with which wffs at any given stage of a proof? Natural deduction systems are
nicer: but since we can make any new temporary assumption at any stage in a
proof, again we need to keep our wits about us, or at least learn to recognize some
common patterns of proof. By contrast, tableau proofs very often write themselves
(which is why I used to introduce formal proofs to students that way thereby
largely separating the business of getting across the idea of formality from having
to teach heuristics of proof-discovery). And because tableau proofs very often write
themselves, they are also good for automated theorem proving.
Now, an open tableau for a single propositional calculus wff A at the top of the
tree in effect constructs a disjunctive normal form for A just take the conjunction
of atoms or negated atoms on each open branch of a completed tree and disjoin the
results. And a tableau proof that C is a valid in effect works by seeking to find a
disjunctive normal form for C and showing it to be empty. When this is pointed
out, you might well think Aha! Then there ought to be a dual proof-method which
works with conjunctive normal forms, rather than disjunctive normal forms! And
you of course must be right. This alternative is called the resolution method, and
indeed is the more common approach in the automated proof community.
Fitting explores both the tableau and resolution methods in this exceptionally
clearly written book. The emphasis is, then, notably different from most of the
other recommended books: but the fresh light thrown on first-order logic makes
the detour through this book vaut le voyage, as the Michelin guides say. (By the
way, if you dont want to take the full tour, then theres a nice introduction to
proofs by resolution in Shawn Hedman, A First Course in Logic (OUP 2004):
1.8, 3.43.5.)
6. Raymond Smullyans Logical Labyrinths (A. K. Peters, 2009) wont be to everyones
taste. From the blurb: This book features a unique approach to the teaching of
mathematical logic by putting it in the context of the puzzles and paradoxes of
common language and rational thought. It serves as a bridge from the authors
puzzle books to his technical writing in the fascinating field of mathematical logic.
Using the logic of lying and truth-telling, the author introduces the readers to
informal reasoning preparing them for the formal study of symbolic logic, from
propositional logic to first-order logic, . . . The book includes a journey through
the amazing labyrinths of infinity, which have stirred the imagination of mankind
as much, if not more, than any other subject. Smullyan starts with puzzles of the
kind where you are visiting an island where there are Knights (truth-tellers) and
Knaves (persistent liars) and you have to work out whats true from what they say
about each other and the world; and he ends with first-order logic (using tableaux),
completeness, compactness and more. Not a substitute for more conventional texts,
of course, but for those with a taste for being led up to the serious stuff via
sequences of puzzles an entertaining and illuminating supplement.
7. Jan von Platos Elements of Logical Reasoning* (CUP, 2014) is based on the authors introductory lectures. I rather suspect that without his lectures and classroom work to round things out, the fairly bare bones presented here in a relatively
short compass would be quite tough as a first introduction, as von Plato talks
about a number of variant natural deduction and sequent calculi. But suppose you
19

have already met one system of natural deduction, and want to know rather more
about proof-theoretic aspects of this and related systems. Suppose, for example,
that you want to know about variant ways of setting up ND systems, about proofsearch, about the relation with so-called sequent calculi, etc. Then this is a very
clear, very approachable and interesting book. Experts will see that there are some
novel twists, with deductive systems tweaked to have some very nice features: beginners will be put on the road towards understanding some of the initial concerns
and issues in proof theory.

Postcript Obviously, I have touched on only a very small proportion of books that cover firstorder logic. The Appendix covers another handful. But I end this chapter responding to some
particular Frequently Asked Questions prompted by earlier versions of the Guide.
What about Mendelson? Oddly, perhaps the most frequent question I have been asked is But
what about Mendelson, Chs. 1 and 2 ? Well, Elliot Mendelsons Introduction to Mathematical
Logic (Chapman and Hall/CRC 5th edn 2009) was first published in 1964 when I was a student
and the world was a great deal younger. The book was the first modern textbook at its level (so
immense credit to Mendelson for that), and I no doubt owe my career to it it got me through
tripos! And it seems that some who learnt using the book are in their turn still using it to teach
from. But it has to be said that the book is often terse to the point of unfriendliness, and the basic
look-and-feel of the book hasnt changed as it has run through successive editions. Mendelsons
presentation of axiomatic systems of logic are quite tough going, and as the book progresses in
later chapters through formal number theory and set theory, things if anything get even less
reader-friendly. Nearly fifty years on, there are (unsurprisingly) many rather more accessible and
more amiable alternatives for beginning serious logic. Mendelsons book is certainly a monument
worth visiting one day: but I cant recommend starting there if you really want an old-school
introduction, Hunters book mentioned above is more approachable. (I say more about this book
in the Appendix, A.2.)
What about Hinman? Similar remarks apply to P. Hinmans recent 2005 blockbuster Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic which has a similar range to Mendelsons book. But aiming as it
does for a more sophisticated level of treatment, and reflecting that the subject has moved on
in the intervening decades, the book is more than twice the size. I can see why it might appeal
to those now running a modern year-long graduate-level mathematical logic course, looking for
a one-stop shop where their students can find (more than) everything they could need. But, this
is surely not the place to begin if you have not met a serious treatment of first-order logic before.
For a start, Hinman isnt really very interested in formal proof systems (a deductive system for
FOL doesnt appear until over two hundred pages into the book), so in fact the opening chapters
are really mostly on model theory, much of it at least a step up from introductory material. (I
say more about this book in A.16.)
What about Bell, DeVidi and Solomon? I suggested that if you concentrated at the outset
on a one-proof-style book, you would do well to widen your focus at an early stage to look
at other logical options. And I recommended Bostocks book for, inter alia, telling you about
different styles of proof-system. An alternative which initially looks promising is the enticingly
titled John L. Bell, David DeVidi and Graham Solomons Logical Options: An Introduction to
Classical and Alternative Logics (Broadview Press 2001). This book covers a lot pretty snappily for the moment, just Chapters 1 and 2 are relevant and a few years ago I used it
as a text for second-year seminar for undergraduates who had used my own tree-based book
for their first year course. But many students found it quite hard going, as the exposition
is terse, and I found myself having to write very extensive seminar notes. For example, see
http://www.logicmatters.net/resources/pdfs/ProofSystems.pdf, which gives a brisk overview of
some different proof-styles (written for those who had first done logic using by tableau-based
introductory book).
And what about Sider? Theodore Sider a very well-known philosopher has written a text
called Logic for Philosophy* (OUP, 2010) aimed at philosophers, which Ive been asked to com-

20

ment on. The book in fact falls into two halves. The second half (about 130 pages) is on modal
logic, and I will comment on that in 4.1. The first half (almost exactly the same length) is on
propositional and first-order logic, together with some variant logics, so is very much on the topic
of this chapter. But while the coverage of modal logic is quite good, I cant at all recommend
the first half of this book.
Sider starts with a system for propositional logic of sequent proofs in what is pretty much
the style of E. J. Lemmons 1965 book Beginning Logic. Which, as anyone who spent their youth
teaching a Lemmon-based course knows, students do not find user-friendly. Why on earth do
things this way? We then get shown a Hilbertian axiomatic system with a bit of reasonably clear
explanation about whats going on. But there are much better presentations for the marginally
more mathematical.
Predicate logic gets only an axiomatic deductive system. Again, I cant think this is the best
way to equip philosophers who might have a perhaps shaky grip on formal ideas with a better
understanding of how a deductive calculus for first-order logic might work, and how it relates to
informal rigorous reasoning. But, as I say, if you are going to start with an axiomatic system,
there are better alternatives. The explanation of the semantics of a first-order language is quite
good, but not outstanding either.
Some of the decisions about what technical details then to cover in some depth and what to
skim over are pretty inexplicable. For example, there are pages tediously proving the mathematically unexciting deduction theorem for axiomatic propositional logic: yet later just one paragraph
is given to the deep compactness theorem for first-order logic, which a philosophy student starting on the philosophy of mathematics might well need to know about and understand some
applications of. Why this imbalance? By my lights, then, the first-half of Siders book certainly
isnt the obvious go-to treatment for giving philosophers a grounding in core first-order logic.
True, a potentially attractive additional feature of this part of Siders book is that it does
contain discussions about e.g. some non-classical propositional logics, and about descriptions
and free logic. But remember all this is being done in 130 pages, which means that things are
whizzing by very fast. For example, the philosophically important issue of second-order logic is
dealt with far too quickly to be useful. And at the introductory treatment of intuitionistic logic
is also far too fast. So the breadth of Siders coverage here goes with too much superficiality. If
you want some breadth, Bostock is still to be preferred.

21

Chapter 3

Basic Mathematical Logic

We now press on from an initial look at first-order logic to consider other core elements
of mathematical logic. The menu for this chapter:
3.1 A brief consideration of second-order logic.
3.2 Some elements of model theory.
3.3 Formal arithmetic, theory of computation, Godels incompleteness theorems.
3.4 Elements of set theory.
As explained in 0.5, I do very warmly recommend reading a series of books on a topic
which overlap in coverage and difficulty, rather than leaping immediately from an entry
level text to a really advanced one. You dont have to follow this advice, of course. But I
mention it again here to remind you just why the list of recommendations in most sections
here and in the next chapter is quite extensive and increments in coverage/difficulty
between successive recommendations are often quite small: this level of logic really isnt as
daunting as the overall length of these two chapters might superficially suggest. Promise!

3.1

Second-order logic

We first look at a familiar extension of first-order classical logic of interest to both

mathematicians and philosophers, one which is arguably important enough to warrant
its having a box of its own in our map of the logical landscape. This is second-order
logic, where we allow generalizations which quantify into predicate position. Consider,
for example, the intuitive principle of arithmetical induction. Take any property X; if 0
has it, and for any n it is passed down from n to n ` 1, then all numbers must have X.
It is tempting to regiment this as follows:
@XrpX0 ^ @npXn Xpn ` 1qs @n Xns
where the second-order quantifier quantifiers into predicate position and supposedly
runs over all properties of numbers. But this is illegitimate in standard first-order logic.
[Historical aside: note that the earliest presentations of quantificational logic, in Frege
and in Principia Mathematica, were of logics that did allow this kind of higher-order
quantification: the concentration on first-order logic which has become standard was a
later development.]
What to do? One option is to go set-theoretic and write the induction principle as
@Xrp0 P X ^ @npn P X pn ` 1q P Xs @n n P Xs
22

where the variable X is now a sorted first-order variable running over sets. But arguably
this changes the subject (our ordinary principle of arithmetical induction doesnt seem
to be about sets), and there are other issues too. So why not take things at face value and
allow that the natural logic of informal mathematical discourse often deploys secondorder quantifiers that range over properties (expressed by predicates) as well as first-order
quantifiers that range over objects (denoted by names), i.e. why not allow quantification
into predicate position as well as into name position?
A number of books already mentioned have sections introducing second-order logic.
But probably as good as any place to get a brief overview is the article
1. Herbert Enderton, Second-order and Higher-order Logic, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-higher-order/
You could then try one of
2. Dirk van Dalen, Logic and Structure, Ch. 4,
3. Herbert Enderton A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (Academic Press 1972,
2002), Ch. 4.
That will be as much as many readers will need. But having got this far, some will
want to dive into the simply terrific
4. Stewart Shapiro, Foundations without Foundationalism: A Case for Second-Order
Logic, Oxford Logic Guides 17 (Clarendon Press, 1991), Chs. 35.
And it would be a pity, while you have Shapiros book in your hands, to skip the initial
philosophical/methodological discussion in the first two chapters here. This whole book
is a modern classic, and remarkably accessible.

3.2

From first-order logic to elementary model theory

In continuing to explore the mainstream menu of a first Mathematical Logic course,

well take things under three headings: first, there is introductory model theory (in this
section); next, arithmetic and the theory of computable functions; and then thirdly set
theory. Things predictably do get rather more mathematical, but hopefully in not too
scary a way at the outset. (Note, you can tackle the topics of these next three sections in
any order that takes your fancy eventually, in much more advanced work, the various
streams can mingle again in intricately complicated ways, but for now you can take them
as running independently.)
So what should you read if you want to move on just a little from those first intimations of classical model theory in some of the readings we mentioned in 2.2?
Aside There is a short old book, the very first volume in the Oxford Logic Guides series,
Jane Bridges Beginning Model Theory: The Completeness Theorem and Some Consequences
(Clarendon Press, 1977) which neatly takes on the story just a few steps. But very sadly, the
book was printed in that brief period when publishers thought it a bright idea to save money
by photographically printing work produced on electric typewriters. Accustomed as we now are
to mathematical texts beautifully LATEXed, the look of Bridgess book is really quite horribly
off-putting, and the books virtues do not outweigh that sad handicap. Lets set it aside.

Here then are two good places to start; read both as they complement each other
nicely.
23

1. Wilfrid Hodgess Elementary Predicate Logic, in the Handbook of Philosophical

Logic, Vol. 1, ed. by D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner, (Kluwer 2nd edition 2001).
This is a slightly expanded version of the essay in the first edition of the Handbook
(read that earlier version if this one isnt available), and is written with Hodgess
usual enviable clarity. Over a hundred pages long, this serves both as an insightful
and fresh overview course on basic first-order logic (more revision!), and as an
illuminating introduction to some ideas from model theory.
2. Dirk van Dalens Logic and Structure* (Springer, 1980; 5th edition 2012). In 2.2
of this Guide I did recommended reading this text up to and including van Dalens
3.2, for coverage of basic first-order logic. Now try reading the whole of his Chapter
3, for a bit of revision and then some more model theory. There are a number of
mathematical illustrations which could pass some readers by at this stage, so feel
very free to skip if/when the going temporarily gets tough.
Still, van Dalen does go pretty speedily. For a more expansive treatment (though not
increasing the level of difficulty, nor indeed covering everything touched on in Hodgess
essay) here is a still reasonably elementary textbook:
3. Maria Manzano, Model Theory, Oxford Logic Guides 37 (OUP, 1999). I seem to
recall, from a reading group where we looked at this book, that the translation can
leave something to be desired. However, the coverage as far as it goes is rather good,
and the treatment gentle and accessible. It starts off by talking about relationships
among structures in general before talking about structures-as-models-of-theories
(an approach that philosophers who havent done a pure maths course will probably
find rather helpful).
And this might already be about as far as many philosophers may want/need to go.
Many mathematicians, however, will be eager to take up the story again in 5.4.
Postscript Sadly, Hodgess essay is in an large multi-volume set that some libraries wont have
(though copies of the essay might float around the web): and Manzanos book is also ludicrously
expensive. So I should probably mention some alternatives more likely to be in any library.
Among recent books, there is quite a bit of model theory in Shawn Hedmans A First Course
in Logic (OUP 2004), Chs 24; however, the level quickly becomes rather challenging as the
topics go quite a bit beyond the basics: see A.15.
So Ch. 2 and the first two sections of Ch. 3 (and perhaps 3.4 as well) of Peter Hinmans
Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic (A. K. Peters, 2005) would probably serve a bit better as
revision-of-the-semantics-of-first-order-logic and an introduction to model theory for the mathematical: see A.16.
Many of the Big Books surveying Mathematical Logic have presentations of first-order logic
which introduce a least some model theory: you can find out more about some of these in
Appendix A.

3.3

Computability and G
odelian incompleteness

The standard mathematical logic curriculum, as well as looking at some elementary general results about formalized theories and their models, looks at two particular instances
of non-trivial, rigorously formalized, axiomatic systems arithmetic (a paradigm theory
of finite whatnots) and set theory (a paradigm theory of infinite whatnots). Well take
arithmetic first.

24

In more detail, there are three inter-related topics here: (a) an introduction to formal theories of arithmetic, (b) the elementary theory of arithmetic computations and
of computability more generally, leading up to (c) Godels epoch-making proof of the
incompleteness of any nice enough theory that can do enough arithmetic (a result of
profound interest to philosophers).
Now, G
odels 1931 proof of his incompleteness theorem uses facts in particular about
so-called primitive recursive functions: these functions are a subclass of the computable
numerical functions, i.e. a subclass of the functions which a suitably programmed computer could evaluate (abstracting from practical considerations of time and available
memory). A more general treatment of the effectively computable functions (arguably
capturing all of them) was developed a few years later, and this in turn throws more
light on the incompleteness phenomenon.
So, if you are going to take your first steps into this area, theres a choice to be
made. Do you look at things in roughly the historical order, introducing theories of
formal arithmetic and learning how to prove initial versions of Godels incompleteness
theorem before moving on to look at the general treatment of computable functions? Or
do you do some of the general theory of computation first, turning to the incompleteness
theorems later?
Here then are two introductory books which take the two different routes:
1. Peter Smith, An Introduction to G
odels Theorems* (CUP 2007, 2nd edition 2013)
does things in the historical order. Mathematicians: dont be put off by the series
title Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy putting it in that series was the
price I paid for cheap paperback publication. This is still quite a meaty logic book,
with a lot of theorems and a lot of proofs, but I hope rendered very accessibly. The
books website is at http://godelbook.net, where there are supplementary materials
of various kinds, including a cut-down version of a large part of the book, G
odel
Without (Too Many) Tears.
2. Richard Epstein and Walter Carnielli, Computability: Computable Functions, Logic,
and the Foundations of Mathematics (Wadsworth 2nd edn. 2000) does computability theory first. This is a nicely introductory book, clearly done, with lots of interesting historical information too in Epsteins 28 page timeline on Computability
and Undecidability at the end of the book.
As youll already see from these two books, this really is a delightful area. Elementary
computability theory is conceptually very neat and natural, and the early Big Results
are proved in quite remarkably straightforward ways (just get the hang of the basic
diagonalization construction, the idea of Godel-style coding, and one or two other tricks
and off you go . . . ).
Just half a notch up in difficulty, heres another book that focuses first on the general
theory of computation before turning to questions of logic and arithmetic:
3. George Boolos, John Burgess, Richard Jeffrey, Computability and Logic (CUP 5th
edn. 2007). This is the latest edition of an absolute classic. The first version (just
by Boolos and Jeffrey) was published in 1974; and theres in fact a great deal
to be said for regarding their 1990 third edition as being the best. The last two
versions have been done by Burgess and have grown considerably and perhaps in
the process lost elegance and some of the individuality. But whichever edition you
get hold of, this is still great stuff. Taking the divisions in the last two editions,
you will want to read the first two parts of the book at an early stage, perhaps
being more selective when it comes to the last part, Further Topics.
25

Well return to say a quite a lot more about these topics in Ch. 3.
Postscript There are many other introductory treatments covering computability and/or incompleteness. For something a little different, let me mention
A. Shen and N. K. Vereshchagin, Computable Functions, (American Math. Soc., 2003). This
is a lovely, elegant, little book in the AMAs Student Mathematical Library the opening
chapters can be recommended for giving a differently-structured quick tour through some
of the Big Ideas, and hinting at ideas to come.
Then various of the Big Books on mathematical logic have treatments of incompleteness. For the
moment, here are three:
I have already very warmly recommended Christopher Learys A Friendly Introduction
to Mathematical Logic (Prentice Hall, 2000) for its coverage of first-order logic. The final
chapter has a nice treatment of incompleteness, and one that doesnt overtly go via computability. (In headline terms you will only understand in retrospect, instead of showing
that certain syntactic properties are (primitive) recursive and showing that all primitive
recursive properties can be represented in theories like PA, Leary relies on more directly
showing that syntactic properties can be represented.) See also A.13.
Herbert Enderton A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (Academic Press 1972, 2002),
Ch. 3 is good on different strengths of formal theories of arithmetic, and then proves the
first incompleteness theorem first for PA and then after touching on other issues shows
how to use the -function trick to extend the theorem to apply to Robinson arithmetic.
Well worth reading after e.g. my book for consolidation.
Peter G. Hinmans Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic (A. K. Peters, 2005), Chs. 4 and 5
could be read after my book as rather terse revision, and as sharpening the story in various
ways.
Finally, I suppose (if only because Ive been asked about it a good number of times) I should
also mention
Douglas Hofstadter, G
odel, Escher, Bach (Penguin, first published 1979). When students
enquire about this, I helpfully say that it is the sort of book that you might well like if
you like that kind of book, and you wont if you dont. It is, to say the least, quirky and
distinctive. As I far as I recall, though, the parts of the book which touch on techie logical
things are pretty reliable and wont lead you astray. Which is a great deal more than can
be said about many popularizing treatments of Godels theorems.

3.4

Beginning set theory

Lets say that the elements of set theory the beginnings that any logician really ought
to know about will comprise enough to explain how numbers (natural, rational, real)
are constructed in set theory (so enough to give us a glimmer of understanding about
why it is said that set theory provides a foundation for mathematics). The elements also
include the basic arithmetic of infinite cardinals, the development of ordinal numbers
and transfinite induction over ordinals, and something about the role of the axiom(s) of
choice. These initial ideas and constructions can (and perhaps should) be presented fairly
informally: but something else that also belongs here at the beginning is an account of the
development of ZFC as the now standard way of formally encapsulating and regimenting
the key principles involved in the informal development of set theory.
Going beyond these elements we have e.g. the exploration of large cardinals, proofs
of the consistency and independence of e.g. the Continuum Hypothesis, and a lot more
26

besides. But readings on these further delights are for Chapter 3: this present section is,
as advertised, about the first steps for beginners in set theory. Even here, however, there
are many books to choose from, so an annotated Guide should be particularly welcome.
I can start off, though, pretty confidently recommending a couple of entry level
treatments:
1. Herbert B. Enderton, The Elements of Set Theory (Academic Press, 1977) has
exactly the right coverage. But more than that, it is particularly clear in marking
off the informal development of the theory of sets, cardinals, ordinals etc. (guided
by the conception of sets as constructed in a cumulative hierarchy) and the formal
axiomatization of ZFC. It is also particularly good and non-confusing about what
is involved in (apparent) talk of classes which are too big to be sets something
that can mystify beginners. It is written with a certain lightness of touch and
proofs are often presented in particularly well-signposted stages. The last couple
of chapters or so perhaps do get a bit tougher, but overall this really is quite
exemplary exposition.
2. Derek Goldrei, Classic Set Theory (Chapman & Hall/CRC 1996) is written by
a staff tutor at the Open University in the UK and has the subtitle For guided
independent study. It is as you might expect extremely clear, it is quite attractively
written (as set theory books go!), and is indeed very well-structured for independent
reading. The coverage is very similar to Endertons, and either book makes a fine
introduction (but for what it is worth, I prefer Enderton ).
Still starting from scratch, and initially also only half a notch or so up in sophistication from Enderton and Goldrei, we find two more really nice books:
3. Karel Hrbacek and Thomas Jech, Introduction to Set Theory (Marcel Dekker, 3rd
edition 1999). This goes a bit further than Enderton or Goldrei (more so in the
3rd edition than earlier ones), and you could on a first reading skip some of
the later material. Though do look at the final chapter which gives a remarkably
accessible glimpse ahead towards large cardinal axioms and independence proofs.
Again this is a very nicely put together book, and recommended if you want to
consolidate your understanding by reading another presentation of the basics and
want then to push on just a bit. (Jech is of course a major author on set theory,
and Hrbacek once won a AMA prize for maths writing.)
4. Yiannis Moschovakis, Notes on Set Theory (Springer, 2nd edition 2006). A slightly
more individual path through the material than the previously books mentioned,
again with glimpses ahead and again attractively written.
These four books are in print: make sure that your university library has them though
none is cheap (indeed, Endertons is quite absurdly expensive). Id strongly advise reading one of the first pair and then one of the second pair.
My next recommendation might come as a bit of surprise, as it is something of a
blast from the past. But we shouldnt ignore old classics they can have a lot to teach
us even if we have read the modern books.
5. Abraham Fraenkel, Yehoshua Bar-Hillel and Azriel Levy, Foundations of SetTheory (North-Holland, 2nd edition 1973). Both philosophers and mathematicians
should appreciate the way this puts the development of our canonical ZFC set
theory into some context, and also discusses alternative approaches. It really is
attractively readable, and should be very largely accessible at this early stage. Im
27

not an enthusiast for history for historys sake: but it is very much worth knowing
the stories that unfold here.
One intriguing feature of that last book is that it doesnt at all emphasize the cumulative
hierarchy the picture of the universe of sets as built up in a hierarchy of stages or
levels, each level containing all the sets at previous levels plus new ones (so the levels
are cumulative). This picture is nowadays familiar to every beginner: you will find it
e.g. in the opening pages of Joseph Shoenfield The axioms of set theory, Handbook of
mathematical logic, ed. J. Barwise, (North-Holland, 1977) pp. 321344. The picture is
also brought to the foreground again in
6. Michael Potter, Set Theory and Its Philosophy (OUP, 2004). For philosophers
(and for mathematicians concerned with foundational issues) this surely is at
some stage a must read, a unique blend of mathematical exposition (mostly
about the level of Enderton, with a few glimpses beyond) and extensive conceptual
commentary. Potter is presenting not straight ZFC but a very attractive variant due
to Dana Scott whose axioms more directly encapsulate the idea of the cumulative
hierarchy of sets. However, it has to be said that there are passages which are pretty
hard going, sometimes because of the philosophical ideas involved, but sometimes
because of unnecessary expositional compression. In particular, at the key point
at p. 41 where a trick is used to avoid treating the notion of a level (i.e. a level in
the hierarchy) as a primitive, the definitions are presented too quickly, and I know
that relative beginners can get lost. However, if you have already read one or two
set theory books from earlier in the list, you should be fairly easily be able to work
out what is going on and read on past this stumbling block.
It is a nice question how much more technical knowledge of results in set theory a
philosophy student interested in logic and the philosophy of maths needs (if she is not
specializing in the technical philosophy of set theory). But getting this far will certainly
be a useful start, so lets pause here.
Postscript Books by Ciesielski and by Hajnal and Hamburger, although in LMS Student Text
series and starting from scratch, are not really suitable for this list (they go too far and probably
too fast). But the following six(!) still-introductory books, listed in order of publication, each
have things to recommend them for beginners: good libraries will have them, so browse through
and see which might suite your interests and mathematical level.
D. van Dalen, H.C. Doets and H. de Swart, Sets: Naive, Axiomatic and Applied (Pergamon,
1978). The first chapter covers the sort of elementary (semi)-naive set theory that any
mathematician needs to know, up to an account of cardinal numbers, and then a first look
at the paradox-avoiding ZF axiomatization. This is attractively and illuminatingly done
(or at least, the conceptual presentation is attractive sadly, and a sign of its time of
publication, the book seems to have been photo-typeset from original pages produced on
electric typewriter, and the result is visually not attractive at all).
The second chapter carries on the presentation axiomatic set theory, with a lot about
ordinals, and getting as far as talking about higher infinities, measurable cardinals and the
like. The final chapter considers about some applications of various set theoretic notions
and principles. Well worth seeking out, if you dont find the typography off-putting..
Keith Devlin, The Joy of Sets (Springer, 1979: 2nd edn. 1993). This is mostly remarkably
lucid and attractively written (as you would expect from this author). And it starts pretty
gently, with the opening chapter exploring naive ideas about sets and some set-theoretic
constructions, and the next chapter introducing axioms for ZFC pretty gently (indeed, nonmathematicians could particularly like Chs 1 and 2, omitting 2.6). Things then speed up
a bit, and by the end of Ch. 3 some 100 pages we are pretty much up to the coverage of

28

Goldreis much longer first six chapters, though Goldrei says more about (re)constructing
classical maths in set theory. Some will prefer Devlins fast-track version. The rest of the
book covers non-introductory topics in set theory.
P. T. Johnstone, Notes on Logic and Set Theory (CUP, 1987). Chapters 58 (just over
fifty pages) introduce the ZF axioms, consider ordinals and well-orderings, the axiom of
choicee, and cardinal arithmetic. This is a very brisk treatment (augmented with substantive exercises). Mathematicians, though, might find it excellent for revision/consolidation,
as the brevity means the Big Ideas get particularly highlighted.
Winfried Just and Martin Weese, Discovering Modern Set Theory I: The Basics (American
Mathematical Society, 1996). This covers overlapping ground to Enderton, patchily but
perhaps more zestfully and with a little more discussion of conceptually interesting issues.
It is at some places more challenging the pace can be uneven. But this is evidently
written by enthusiastic teachers, and the book is very engaging. (The story continues in a
second volume.)
I like the style a lot, and think it works very well. I dont mean the occasional (sightly
laboured?) jokes: I mean the in-the-classroom feel of the way that proofs are explored
and motivated, and also the way that teach-yourself exercises are integrated into the text.
For instance there are exercises that encourage you to produce proofs that are in fact
non-fully-justified, and then the discussion explores what goes wrong and how to plug the
gaps.
A. Shen and N. K. Vereshchagin, Basic Set Theory (American Mathematical Society,
2002), just over 100 pages, and mostly about ordinals. But very readable, with 151 Problems as you go along to test your understanding. Could be very useful by way of revision/consolidation
Ernest Schimmerling, A Course on Set Theory (CUP, 2011) is slightly mistitled: it is just
160 pages, again introductory but with some rather different emphases. Quite an attractive
supplementary read at this level.
Finally, what about the chapters on set theory in those Big Books on Mathematical Logic?
Im not convinced that any are to be particularly recommended compared with the stand-alone
treatments.

29

Chapter 4

Variant Logics (of particular

interest to philosophers)
Heres the menu for the chapter:
4.1 We start with modal logic, for two reasons. First, the basics of modal logic dont
involve anything mathematically more sophisticated than the elementary firstorder logic covered in Chiswell and Hodges (indeed to make a start on modal
logic you dont even need as much as that). Second, and more much importantly,
philosophers working in many areas surely ought to know a little modal logic.
4.2 Classical logic demands that all terms denote one and one thing i.e. it doesnt
countenance empty terms which denote nothing, or plural terms which may denote
more than one thing. In this section, we look at logics which remain classical in
spirit but which do allow empty and/or plural terms.
4.3 We then look at some non-classical logics: first, intuitionistic logic (which indeed is
of interest to mathematicians too), and then wilder deviations from the classical
paradigm.

4.1

Getting started with modal logic

Basic modal logic is the logic of the operators l and 3 (read it is necessarily true
that and it is possibly true that); it adopts principles like l and 3, and
investigates more disputable principles like 3 l 3. The place to start is clear:
1. Rod Girle, Modal Logics and Philosophy (Acumen 2000, 2009), Part I. Girles logic
courses in Auckland, his enthusiasm and abilities as a teacher, are justly famous.
Part I of this book provides a particularly lucid introduction, which in 136 pages
explains the basics, covering both trees and natural deduction for some propositional modal logics, and extending to the beginnings of quantified modal logic.
Philosophers may well want to go on to read Part II of the book, on applications
of modal logic.
Also pretty introductory, though perhaps a little brisker than Girle at the outset, is
2. Graham Priest, An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic* (CUP, much expanded
2nd edition 2008): read Chs 24 for propositional modal logics, Chs 1418 for
quantified logics. This book which is a terrific achievement and enviably clear and
well-organized systematically explores logics of a wide variety of kinds, using trees
30

throughout in a way that can be very illuminating indeed. Although it starts from
scratch, however, it would be better to come to the book with a prior familiarity
with logic via trees, as in my IFL. We will be mentioning this book again in later
sections for its excellent coverage of non-classical themes.
If you do start with Priests book, then at some point you will need to supplement it by
looking at a treatment of natural deduction proof systems for modal logics. One option
is to dip into Tony Roys comprehensive Natural Derivations for Priest, An Introduction
to Non-Classical Logic which presents natural deduction systems corresponding to the
propositional logics presented in tree form in the first edition of Priest (so the first half of
the new edition). This can be downloaded at http://philosophy.unimelb.edu.au/ajl/2006/.
Another possible way in to ND modal systems would be via the opening chapters of
3. James Garson, Modal Logic for Philosophers* (CUP, 2006). This again is certainly intended as a gentle introductory book: it deals with both ND and semantic
tableaux (trees), and covers quantified modal logic. It is reasonably accessible, but
not I think as attractive as Girle.
We now go a step up in sophistication:
4. Melvin Fitting and Richard L. Mendelsohn, First-Order Modal Logic (Kluwer
1998). This book starts again from scratch, but then does go rather more snappily,
with greater mathematical elegance (though it should certainly be accessible to
anyone who is modestly on top of non-modal first-order logic, as in the previous
section). It still also includes a good amount of philosophically interesting material.
Recommended.
And we can for the moment stop here. Getting as far as Fitting and Mendelsohn will
give most philosophers a good enough grounding in basic modal logic. But for more
(including additional reading relevant to Timothy Williamsons 2013 book on modal
metaphysics), see 5.2.
Postscript Old hands learnt their modal logic from G. E. Hughes and M. J. Cresswell An
Introduction to Modal Logic (Methuen, 1968). This was at the time of original publication a
unique book, enormously helpfully bringing together a wealth of early work on modal logic in an
approachable way.
Nearly thirty years later, the authors wrote a heavily revised and updated version, A New
Introduction to Modal Logic (Routledge, 1996). This newer version like the original one concentrates on axiomatic versions of modal logic, which doesnt make it always the most attractive
introduction from a modern point of view. But it is still an admirable book at an introductory
level (and going beyond), that enthusiasts will learn from.
I didnt recommend the first part of Theodore Siders Logic for Philosophy* (OUP, 2010).
However, the second part of the book which is entirely devoted to modal logic (including quantified modal logic) and related topics like Kripke semantics for intuitionistic logic is significantly
better. Compared with the early chapters with their inconsistent levels of coverage and sophistication, the discussion here develops more systematically and at a reasonably steady level of
exposition. There is, however, a lot of (acknowledged) straight borrowing from Hughes and Cresswell, and like those earlier authors Sider also gives axiomatic systems. In fact, student readers
would probably do best by supplementing Sider with a parallel reading of the approachable earlier text. But if you want a pretty clear explanation of Kripke semantics, and want to learn e.g.
how to search systematically for countermodels, Siders treatment in his Ch. 6 could well work
as a basis. And then the later treatments of quantified modal logic in Chs 9 and 10 (and some
of the conceptual issues they raise) are also lucid and approachable.

31

4.2

Other classical extensions and variants

We next look at what happens if you stay first-order in the sense of keeping your variables
running over objects, but allow terms that fail to denote (free logic) or which allow terms
that refer to more than one thing (plural logic).

4.2.1

Free Logic

Classical logic assumes that any term denotes an object in the domain of quantification,
and in particular assumes that all functions are total, i.e. defined for every argument so
an expression like f pcq always denotes. But mathematics cheerfully countenances partial
functions, which may lack a value for some arguments. Should our logic accommodate
this, by allowing terms to be free of existential commitment? In which case, what would
such a free logic look like?
For some background and motivation, see
1. David Bostock, Intermediate Logic (OUP 1997), Ch. 8,
and also look at a useful and quite detailed overview article from the Stanford Encyclopedia (what would philosophers do without that?):
1. John Nolt, Free Logic, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-free/
Then for another very accessible brief formal treatment, this time in the framework of
logic-by-trees, see
2. Graham Priest, An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic* (CUP, 2nd edition 2008),
Ch. 13.
For more details (though going rather beyond the basics), you could make a start on
3. Ermanno Bencivenga, Free Logics, in D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (eds.), Handbook of Philosophical Logic, vol. III: Alternatives to Classical Logic (Reidel, 1986).
Reprinted in D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (eds.), Handbook of Philosophical Logic,
2nd edition, vol. 5 (Kluwer, 2002).
Postscript Rolf Schocks Logics without Existence Assumptions (Almqvist & Wiskell, Stockholm 1968) is still well worth looking at on free logic after all this time. And for a much more
recent collection of articles around and about the topic of free logic, see Karel Lambert, Free
Logic: Selected Essays (CUP 2003).

4.2.2

Plural logic

In ordinary mathematical English we cheerfully use plural denoting terms such as 2,

4, 6, and 8, the natural numbers, the real numbers between 0 and 1, the complex
solutions of z 2 ` z ` 1 0, the points where line L intersects curve C, the sets that are
not members of themselves, and the like. Such locutions are entirely familiar, and we
use them all the time without any sense of strain or logical impropriety. We also often
generalize by using plural quantifiers like any natural numbers or some reals together
with linked plural pronouns such as they and them. For example, here is a version of
the Least Number Principle: given any natural numbers, one of them must be the least.
By contrast, there are some reals e.g. those strictly between 0 and 1 such that no
one of them is the least.
32

Plural terms and plural quantifications appear all over the place in mathematical
argument. It is surely a project of interest to logicians to regiment and evaluate the
informal modes of argument involving such constructions. Hence the business of plural
logic, a topic of much recent discussion. For an introduction, see
1. ystein Linnebo, Plural Quantification, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plural-quant/
And do read at least two of the key papers listed in Linnebos expansive bibliography:
2. Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley, Strategies for a Logic of Plurals, Philosophical
Quarterly (2001) pp. 289306.
3. George Boolos, To Be Is To Be a Value of a Variable (or to Be Some Values of
Some Variables), Journal of Philosophy (1984) pp. 43050. Reprinted in Boolos,
Logic, Logic, and Logic (Harvard University Press, 1998).
(Oliver and Smiley give reasons why there is indeed a real subject here: you cant readily
eliminate plural talk in favour e.g. of singular talk about sets. Booloss classic will tell
you something about the possible relation between plural logic and second-order logic.)
Then, for much more about plurals, you could look at
4. Thomas McKay, Plural Predication (OUP 2006),
which is clear and approachable. Real enthusiasts for plural logic will want to dive into
the long-awaited (though occasionally rather idiosyncratic)
5. Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley, Plural Logic (OUP 2013).

4.3

Non-classical variants

In this section we turn to consider more radical departures from the classical paradigm.
First both historically and in terms of philosophical importance we look at intuitionistic
logic. We then consider relevance logic which suppresses the classical (and intuitionistic)
rule that a contradiction implies anything and we also note some wilder deviancies!

4.3.1

Intuitionist logic

Could there be domains (mathematics, for example) where truth is in some good sense
a matter of provability-in-principle, and falsehood a matter of refutability-in-principle?
And if so, must every proposition from such a domain be either provable or refutable?
Perhaps we shouldnt endorse the principle that _ is always true. (Maybe the
principle, even when it does hold for some domain, doesnt hold as a matter of logic but
as a matter of metaphysics.)
Thoughts like this give rise to one kind of challenge to classical two-valued logic, which
of course does assume excluded middle across the board. For more on the intuitionist
challenge, see
1. John L. Bell, David DeVidi and Graham Solomons Logical Options: An Introduction to Classical and Alternative Logics (Broadview Press 2001), 5.2, 5.3. Gives
an elementary explanation of the constructivist motivation for intuitionist logic,
and then explains a tree-based proof system for both propositional and predicate
logic.
33

2. Graham Priest, An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic* (CUP, much expanded

2nd edition 2008), Chs. 6, 20. These chapters of course flow on naturally from
Priests treatment in that book of modal logics, first propositional and then predicate. (There is, in fact, a close relation between intuitionistic logic and a certain
modal logic.)
Theres a snappy treatment but again manageable if you have tackled earlier chapters
in van Dalens book, so you are familiar with the style in
3. Dirk van Dalen, Logic and Structure* (Springer, 4th edition 2004), 5.15.3.
Likewise, there is quite a good treatment in
4. Theodore Sider, Logic for Philosophy (OUP, 2010), 3.5, 7.4.
Or you could dive straight in to the more expansive and detailed treatment provided
accessibly by
5. Melvin Fitting, Intuitionistic Logic, Model Theory, and Forcing (North Holland,
1969). The first part of the book Chs 16 is a particularly clear stand-alone introduction to the semantics and a proof-system for intuitionist logic (the second
part of the book concerns an application of this to a construction in set theory,
but dont let that put you off the first part!).
We will return briefly in 5.9 to note some further explorations of intuitionism.
Aside One theme not highlighted in these initial readings is that intuitionistic logic seemingly
has a certain naturalness compared with classical logic, from a more proof-theoretic point of view.
Suppose we think of the natural deduction introduction rule for a logical operator as fixing the
meaning of the operator (rather than a prior semantics fixing what is the appropriate rule). Then
the corresponding elimination rules surely ought to be in harmony with the introduction rule, in
the sense of just undoing its effect, i.e. giving us back from a wff with O as its main operator
no more than what an application of the O-introduction rule to justify would have to be based
on. For the idea of harmony see e.g. Neil Tennants Natural Logic** (Edinburgh UP 1978, 1990)
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/tennant9/Natural Logic.pdf, 4.12. From this perspective the
characteristic classical excluded middle rule is seemingly not harmonious.
Theres a significant literature on this idea: for some discussion, and pointers to other discussions, you could start with Peter Milne, Classical harmony: rules of inference and the meaning
of the logical constants, Synthese vol. 100 (1994), pp. 4994.

4.3.2

Relevance logics (and wilder logics too)

The inference P, P 6 Q is classically valid. But doesnt it commit a fallacy of relevance?

Heres another, related, issue. Classically, if $ , then , $ (irrelevant premisses can be added without making a valid inference invalid). And if , $ then
$ (thats the Conditional Proof rule in action). Presumably we have p $ p. So
we have p, q $ p, whence p $ q p. It seems then that classical logics carefree attitude
to questions of relevance in deduction and its dubious version of the conditional are tied
closely together.
Can we do better? What does a more relevance-aware logic look like? For useful
introductory reading, see
1. Edwin Mares, Relevance Logic, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-relevance/.
34

2. Graham Priest, Koji Tanaka, Zach Weber, Paraconsistent logic, The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-paraconsistent/.
I can then be very lazy and just refer the beginner (once again!) to the wonderful
3. Graham Priest, An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic* (CUP, much expanded
2nd edition 2008). Look at Chs. 710 for a treatment of propositional logics of
various deviant kinds, including relevance logics. Priest goes on to also treat logics
where there are truth-value gaps, and more wildly logics where a proposition
can be both true and false (theres a truth-value glut), Then, if this excites you,
carry on to look at Chs. 2124 where the corresponding quantificational logics are
presented. This book really is a wonderful resource.
If you then want to read one more work on relevant logic, the obvious place to go is
4. Edwin Mares, Relevant Logic: A Philosophical Interpretation (CUP 2004). As the
title suggests, this book has very extensive conceptual discussion alongside the
more formal parts.
Also relevant here is
5. J. C. Beall and Bas van Fraassens Possibilities and Paradox (OUP 2003) is an
introduction to modal and many-valued logics, discussing inter alia the liar
paradox, vagueness (truth-value gaps), and paraconsistent reasoning from inconsistent premisses (touching on truth-value gluts again).
You can then follow up some of the references in those two SEP encyclopaedia entries.

35

Chapter 5

Exploring Further
In this chapter, I make some suggestions for more advanced reading on a selection of
the areas of logic introduced in Chapters 3 and 4, and also suggest reading on some
additional topics.
Before tackling this often significantly more advanced material, however, it might
be very well worth first taking the time to look at one or two of the Big Books on
mathematical logic which will help consolidate your grip on the basics at the level of
Chapter 3 and/or push things on just a bit. See Appendix A for some guidance on
whats available. NB: In terms of the typical level of what they cover, this chapter and
Appendix A could as well have appeared in the reverse order (as indeed they did in some
earlier versions of this Guide). On the other hand, the often rather critical discussions
of the Big Books have a rather different character to the generally commendatory spirit
of the previous chapters and this one, and thats why they are perhaps better thought
of as constituting an Appendix to the main Guide.

5.1

How to use this chapter, and the menu

The recommendations in the previous chapters were all pretty mainstream, were mostly
fairly manageable by a keen student even if serious mathematics isnt really his/her
thing, and taken together represent the broad sweep of what a student aiming for a
wide-ranging but basic logical competence should get to know about.
The recommendations in this chapter are rather more varied. These are books at
assorted levels, which I happen to know more or less well and happen to like, clustered
round topics that happen to interest me (others would no doubt produce different lists
with different emphases, going further in some places, less far in others, and even with
new topics). But the general plan is to point to enough works to take you a few more
steps on beyond the basics in key areas, so you can then can happily fly solo and explore
further on your own should you want to. To stress the point, however, I dont pretend to
any consistency in how far we reach beyond the basics. In some cases, I mention recent
texts which will take you quite close to the frontiers in a sub-subfield; but mostly we
still fall some way short of that.
Few people will be keen to pursue all these different subfields of logic: so you will
probably want to be a lot more selective and/or follow up suggestions from other sources
too. Ideally, then, probably the best thing to do is to choose the relevant section(s) of this
chapter to consult while sitting in a good library where you can look at the recommended
books, skimming through them to see whether they appear to be what you are looking
for. And dont be daunted by first appearances! Just tell yourself: if you managed the
36

tougher readings in Chapter 3, then if you take things slowly and put in some work, you
ought to be able to manage at least the initial readings in this chapter on any topic you
care to pursue further. No doubt you will find some later suggestions tough work at the
outset: but then so will almost everyone else. And dont get hung up on finishing books
(unless you have ambitions to do serious work in an area): often you can get a lot out
of a lot less than a full end-to-end reading.
So, with those preliminaries, heres the menu for this chapter:
5.2 Before getting down to the nitty-gritty of more advanced work on mainstream
mathematical logic, we first briefly return to consider modal logic again.
5.3 And then it is back to work on math. logic, but starting with an area we havent
really looked at so far, namely proof theory.
5.4 Next, we look at more advanced model theory.
5.55.7 We now separate out three topics which we took together in 3.3, namely
computability, G
odelian incompleteness, and theories of arithmetic.
5.8 Now it is time for a long section on serious set theory.
5.9 Set theory quickly becomes quite wildly infinitary: we now look briefly at what
happens if we try to keep mathematics on a tighter rein, and restrict ourselves to
constructively acceptable methods.
5.10 Finally we glance over towards category theory.

5.2

Aside: next steps beyond the modal basics

Our main focus in this chapter is going to be on the core mathematical logic curriculum,
and on topics which naturally extend it. But in this first section we step aside from
the main line of development to return to modal logic, which is particular interest to
philosophers. Where could you go next after the readings suggested in 4.1?
This will depend on your own further concerns. One initial option is to widen your
focus a bit, and (if you havent done so) look at a book already mentioned in 4.3.2:
1. J. C. Beall and Bas van Fraassens Possibilities and Paradox (OUP 2003) is an
introduction to modal and many-valued logics, discussing inter alia the liar
paradox, vagueness, and paraconsistent reasoning from inconsistent premisses. So
this is an accessible book which keeps philosophical motivations very much at the
front of the explorations.
Another book, much longer and more technical, which also stays at the propositional
level is
2. Patrick Blackburn, Maarten de Ricke and Yde Venemas Modal Logic (CUP, 2001).
This is one of the Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science. But dont let
that provenance put you off indeed this book could have appeared earlier on the
list. A text on propositional modal logics, it is (relatively) accessibly and agreeably
written, with a lot of signposting to the reader of possible routes through the book,
and interesting historical notes. I think it works pretty well, and will certainly give
you an idea about how computer scientists approach modal logic (though I suppose
that some of the further developments explored here do take you away from what
is likely to be philosophically interesting territory).

37

The next option is to extend and deepen your appreciation of the quantified modal
logics including second-order logics that have recently become central to some philosophical debates. Philosophers will want to pursue those debates and learn some technical
details by diving into
3. Timothy Williamson, Modal Logic as Metaphysics (OUP, 2013). This has to whet
your appetite chapters on Contingentism and Necessitism, The Barcan Formula
and its Converse, Possible Worlds Model Theory, Predication and Modality, From
First-Order to Higher-Order Modal Logic, Intensional Comprehension Principles
and Metaphysics, Mappings between Contingentist and Necessitist Discourse, Consequences of Necessitism.
If you want to further nail down the technical background here, then you will probably
want to read
4. Nino B. Cocchiarella and Max A. Freund, Modal Logic: An Introduction to its
Syntax and Semantics (OUP, 2008). The blurb announces that a variety of modal
logics at the sentential, first-order, and second-order levels are developed with
clarity, precision and philosophical insight. However, when I looked at this book
with an eye to using it for a graduate seminar a couple of years back, I confess I
didnt find it very appealing: so I do suspect that many philosophical readers will
indeed find the treatments in this book rather relentless. However, the promised
wide coverage will make the book of particular interest to philosophers concerned
with the issues that Williamson discusses.
Going in a different direction, if you are a philosopher interested in the relation
between modal logic and intuitionistic logic, then you might want to look at
5. Alexander Chagrov and Michael ZakharyaschevModal Logic (OUP, 1997). This is a
volume in the Oxford Logic Guides series and again concentrates on propositional
modal logics. It is probably for the more mathematically minded reader: it tackles
things in an unusual order, starting with an extended discussion of intuitionistic
logic, and is pretty demanding. But enthusiasts should take a look.
In yet another direction, relating to issues to do the logic of the particular modality
is formally provable (and hence relating to Godels Second Incompleteness Theorem,
which well come back to), theres the terrific
6. George Boolos, The Logic of Provability (CUP, 1993).
Postscript

Three additional books to mention:

Some would say that Johan van Benthems Modal Logic for Open Minds (CSLI 2010)
belongs much earlier in this Guide. But, though developed from a course intended to give
a modern introduction to modal logic, it is not really routine enough in coverage and
approach to serve at an elementary level. It takes up some themes relevant to computer
science: worth having a look at to get an idea of how modal logic fares in the wider world.
Sally Popkorn, First Steps in Modal Logic (CUP, 1994). The author is, at least in this
possible world, identical with the mathematician Harold Simmons. This book, which is
also entirely on propositional modal logics, is another one written for computer scientists.
The Introduction rather boldly says There are few books on this subject and even fewer
books worth looking at. None of these give an acceptable mathematically correct account
of the subject. This book is a first attempt to fill that gap. This considerably oversells the
case: but the result is still illuminating and readable.

38

Finally, if you want to explore even more, theres the giant Handbook of Modal Logic, van
Bentham et al., eds, (Elsevier, 2005). You can get an idea of whats in the volume by
looking at http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/frank/MLHandbook which links to the opening pages
of the contributions.

5.3

Proof theory

Proof theory has been (and continues to be) something of a poor relation in the standard
Mathematical Logic curriculum: the usual survey textbooks dont discuss it. Yet this is
a fascinating area, of interest to philosophers, mathematicians, and computer scientists
who, after all, ought to be concerned with the notion of proof! So lets fill this gap next.
For an initial survey see
1. Jan von Plato, The development of proof theory, The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/proof-theory-development/
You should then read the little hundred-page classic
2. Dag Prawitz, Natural Deduction: A Proof-Theoretic Study* (Originally published
in 1965: reprinted Dover Publications 2006).
You might also profitably take an early look at the two chapters of this regrettably,
very partial draft book, which (with a bit of judicious skipping) will help explain more
about the conceptual interest of proof theory:
3. Greg Restall, Proof Theory and Philosophy**, http://consequently.org/writing/ptp/.
And if you want to follow up in depth Prawitzs investigations of the proof theory of
various systems of logic, the next place to look is
4. Sara Negri and Jan von Plato, Structural Proof Theory (CUP 2001). This is a
modern text which goes at a reasonable pace, neither too terse, nor too laboured.
(When we read it in a graduate-level reading group, however, we did find we
needed to pause sometimes to stand back and think about the motivations for
various technical developments. A few more classroom asides in the text would
have made a rather good text even better.)
The path now forks. Going leftwards, we can explore non-standard logics. Reflection
on the structural rules of classical and intuitionistic proof systems rather naturally raises
the question of what happens when we tinker with these rules. We noted before the
classical inference which takes us from the trivial p $ p by weakening to p, q $ p and
on, via conditional proof, to p $ q p. If we want a conditional that conforms better
to intuitive constraints of relevance, then we need to block that proof: is weakening the
culprit? The investigation of what happens if we tinker with standard structural rules
belongs to substructural logic, outlined in
5. Greg Restall, Substructural Logics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-substructural/,
and explored at length in the admirable
6. Greg Restall, An Introduction to Substructural Logics (Routledge, 2000), which
will also teach you a lot more about proof theory generally in a very accessible
way. Do read at least the first seven chapters.
39

The rightwards path on from the fork more conservatively cleaves to classical themes.
In particular, if you want to look at a Gentzen-style famous proof of the consistency of
arithmetic using proof-theoretic ideas, I suppose that one obvious place to go is still
7. Gaisi Takeuti, Proof Theory* (North-Holland 1975, 2nd edn. 1987: reprinted Dover
Publications 2013). This is a classic if only because for a while it was about the
only available text. Later chapters wont really be accessible to beginners. But you
could/should try reading Ch. 1 on logic, 17 (and then perhaps the beginnings
of 8, pp. 4045, which is easier than it looks if you compare how you prove the
completeness of a tree system of logic); then on Gentzens proof, read Ch. 2, 911
and 12 up to p. 114. This isnt exactly plain sailing but if you skip and skim
over some of the more tedious proof-details you can pick up a basic sense of what
happens in the consistency proof.
A wonderful resource on classical themes is the editors own two contributions to
8. Samuel R. Buss, ed., Handbook of Proof Theory (North-Holland, 1998). Later chapters of this large handbook do get pretty hard-core; but the opening two chapters
by Buss himself are excellent and are relatively approachable.
Ch. 1 is a 78 pp. Introduction to Proof Theory**, which you can download
from http://www.math.ucsd.edu/sbuss/ResearchWeb/handbookI/index.html.
Ch. 2 is on First-Order Proof-Theory of Arithmetic**, and you can download
it from http://www.math.ucsd.edu/sbuss/ResearchWeb/handbookII/index.html.
Later chapters of the Handbook will give you pointers for exploring further.
But these do not treat so-called ordinal analysis in proof theory as initiated by Gentzen.
For something about this, you could look at the opening sections of
9. Wolfram Pohlers, Proof Theory: The First Step into Impredicativity (Springer
2009) . This book has introductory ambitions, but in fact I would judge that
it requires an amount of mathematical sophistication from its reader. From the
blurb: As a warm up Gentzens classical analysis of pure number theory is presented in a more modern terminology, followed by an explanation and proof of the
famous result of Feferman and Sch
utte on the limits of predicativity. The first half
of the book is probably manageable if you already have done some of the other
reading. But then the going indeed gets pretty tough.
Postscript

Let me mention a few more books, in chronological order of publication:

Jean-Yves Girard, Proof Theory and Logical Complexity. Vol. I (Bibliopolis, 1987) is intended as an introduction to proof theory [Vol. II was never published]. With judicious
skipping, which Ill signpost, this is readable and insightful.
So: skip the Foreword, but do pause to glance over Background and Notations as
Girards symbolic choices need a little explanation. Then the long Ch. 1 is by way of
an introduction, proving G
odels two incompleteness theorem and explaining The Fall of
Hilberts Program: if youve read some of the recommendations in 3.3 above, you can
probably skim this pretty quickly, just noting Girards highlighting of the notion of 1consistency.
Ch. 2 is on the sequent calculus, proving Gentzens Hauptsatz, i.e. the crucial cutelimination theorem, and then deriving some first consequences (you can probably initially
omit the forty pages of annexes to this chapter). Then also omit Ch. 3 whose content isnt
relied on later. But Ch. 4 on Applications of the Hauptsatz is crucial (again, however, at
a first pass you can skip almost 60 pages of annexes to the chapter).

40

A. S. Troelstra and H. Schwichtenberg, Basic Proof Theory (CUP 2nd ed. 2000) is a
volume in the series Cambridge Tracts in Computer Science, but dont let that in itself
put you off. One theme that runs through the book, however, concerns the computerscience idea of formulas-as-types and invokes the lambda calculus: however, it is possible
to skip over those episodes. Again this is intended to be an introduction, and is I suppose
reasonably accessible: however the book is perhaps a bit cluttered for my tastes because
it spends quite a bit of time looking at slightly different ways of doing natural deduction
and slightly different ways of doing the sequent calculus. You could, however, with a bit
of skipping, usefully read just Chs. 13, the first halves of Chs. 4 and 6, and the first four
sections of Ch. 10.
H. Schwichtenberg and S. Wainer, Proofs and Computations (Association of Symbolic
Logic/CUP 2012) studies fundamental interactions between proof-theory and computability. The first four chapters, at any rate, will be of wide interest, giving another take on
some basic material and should be manageable with a fair bit of background though
sadly, the book is not well written and makes heavier weather than necessary.

5.4

Beyond the model-theoretic basics

Back now for a few sections to the traditional core Mathematical Logic curriculum:

5.4.1

Standard model theory

If you want to explore model theory beyond the introductory material in 2.2 and 3.2,
why not start with a quick warm-up, with some reminders of headlines and pointers
ahead:
1. Wilfrid Hodges, First-order model theory, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/modeltheory-fo/.
Then a classic choice still remains
2. C. Chang and H. J. Keisler Model Theory* (originally North Holland 1973: the
third edition has been inexpensively republished by Dover Books in 2012). This is a
weighty book, over 550 pages long; but it proceeds at an engagingly leisurely pace,
making it pretty accessible. It is particularly lucid and is very nicely constructed
with different chapters on different methods of model-building.
Theres a very general point to be made here. Of course emphases change over time,
new techniques become mainstream, etc. But still, dont ignore the Old Classics in logic
reading them can still be wonderfully illuminating.
Awaiting us next we have the self-selecting
3. Wilfrid Hodges A Shorter Model Theory (CUP, 1997). Deservedly a modern classic
under half the length of Hodgess encyclopedic original longer version, but full
of good things. It does get fairly tough as the book progresses, but the earlier
chapters should certainly be manageable.
4. Another, differently organized, book at a similar sort of level of difficulty as the
earlier chapters of Hodges is Philipp Rothmaiers Introduction to Model Theory
(Taylor and Francis 2000).

41

Then a notch or two up again in difficulty and mathematical sophistication and

with later chapters probably going over the horizon for all but the most enthusiastic
readers of this Guide there is another book which has also quickly become something
of a standard text:
5. David Marker, Model Theory: An Introduction (Springer 2002). Rightly very highly
regarded. (But it isnt published in the series Graduate Texts in Mathematics for
nothing!)
And if you can tackle Marker, then you wont need any further Guide on model theory
from me!
Postscript It is illuminating to read something about the history of model theory. Theres a
good, and characteristically readable, unpublished essay here:
Wilfrid Hodges, Model Theory, http://www.wilfridhodges.co.uk/history07.pdf
Most of the Big Books on mathematical logic have chapters on model theory. I have already
mentioned
Shawn Hedman, A First Course in Logic (OUP 2004): Chs 46 go surprisingly far for a
book describing itself as a first course in logic.
I could also mention the following:
Chs 2 and 3 of Alexander Prestel and Charles N. Delzells Mathematical Logic and Model
Theory: A Brief Introduction (Springer 1986, 2011) are brisk but clear, and can be recommended to mathematicians. See A.9 for a little more on this book.
Chs 13 of Peter G. Hinmans doorstep Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic (A. K. Peters,
2005) present mid-level model theory in a fairly accessible way, if you are a mathematician
who has already had a first encounter with first-order logic, completeness and compactness.
Ch. 7 takes on the story further, but Hodges and Marker are to be preferred. See A.16
for a little more on this book.
And then there are other general books about model theory at around Markers level, of
which Bruno Poziat, A Course in Model Theory (Springer, 2000) is perhaps particularly notable.
But Ill finish this subsection by mentioning two not-too-difficult books which focus in on
particular elements of model theory in an attractive way:
Particularly elegant is J. L, Bell and A. B. Slomsons Models and Ultraproducts* (NorthHolland 1969; Dover reprint 2006). As the title suggests, this focuses particularly on the
ultra-product construction.
Theres a short little book by Kees Doets Basic Model Theory (CSLI 1996), which concentrates on Ehrenfeucht games which could also appeal to enthusiasts.

5.4.2

A digression on finite model theory

Finite model theory arises from consideration of problems in theory of computation

(where, of course, we are interested in finite structures e.g. finite databases and finite computations over them). What happens, then, to model theory if we restrict our
attention to finite models?
Trakhtenbrots theorem, for example, tells that the class of sentences true in any
finite model is not recursively enumerable. So there is no deductive theory for capturing
such finitely valid sentences. As the Wikipedia entry on the theorem wonders, isnt it
counter-intuitive that the property of being valid over all structures is easier (can be
nicely captured in a sound and complete deductive system) compared with the restricted
finite case? It turns out, then, that the study of finite models is surprisingly rich and
interesting (at least for enthusiasts!). So why not dip into one or other of
42

1. Leonard Libkin, Elements of Finite Model Theory (Springer 2004): for a downloadable portion see http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/libkin/fmt/.
2. Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus and Jorg Flum, Finite Model Theory (Springer 2nd edn.
1999).
Either is a good standard text to explore the area with, though I prefer Libkins.

5.5

Computability

In 3.3 we took a first look at the related topics of computability, Godelian incompleteness, and theories of arithmetic. In this and the next two main sections, we return to these
topics, taking them separately (though this division is necessarily slightly artificial).

5.5.1

Computable functions

A recent and very admirable introductory text is

1. Herbert E. Enderton, Computability Theory: An Introduction to Recusion Theory
(Associated Press, 2011). This short book completes Endertons trilogy covering
the basics of the mathematical logic curriculum weve already mentioned his
A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (1972) on first-order logic and a little model
theory, and his The Elements of Set Theory (1972) (see 2.2 and 3.4 above, and
A.6). And this present instalment was a candidate for being mentioned in our introductory readings in Chapter 3 instead of Epstein and Carnielli: but Endertons
book is just a step more challenging/sophisticated/abstract so probably belongs
here.
Enderton writes here with a attractive zip and lightness of touch. The first chapter is on the informal Computability Concept. There are then chapters on general
recursive functions and on register machines (showing that the register-computable
functions are exactly the recursive ones), and a chapter on recursive enumerability. Chapter 5 makes Connections to Logic (including proving Tarskis theorem on
the undefinability of arithmetical truth and a semantic incompleteness theorem).
The final two chapters push on to say something about Degrees of Unsolvability
and Polynomial-time Computability. This is all very nicely done, and in under 150
pages too.
Endertons book could appeal to, and be very manageable by, philosophers. However, if
you are more mathematically minded and/or you have already coped well with the basic
reading on computability mentioned in 3.3 you might well prefer to jump up a level,
straight to the stand-out text:
2. Nigel Cutland, Computability: An Introduction to Recursive Function Theory (CUP
1980). This is a rightly much-reprinted classic and is beautifully put together. This
does have a bit more of the look-and-feel of a traditional maths text book of its
time (so with fewer of Endertons classroom asides). However, if you go through
most of Boolos and Jeffrey without too much difficult, you ought certainly to be
able to tackle this: it is not conceptually significantly more difficult. Very warmly
recommended.
And of more recent general books covering similar ground, I particularly like

43

3. S. Barry Cooper, Computability Theory (Chapman & Hall/CRC 2004, 2nd edn.
forthcoming 2013). This is a particularly nicely done modern textbook. Read at
least Part I of the book (about the same level of sophistication as Cutland, but
with some extra topics), and then you can press on as far as your curiosity takes
you, and get to excitements like the Friedberg-Muchnik theorem.
Postscript

Ill mention, if only to set aside, another recent text which I found disappointing:

George Tourlakis, Theory of Computation (Wiley 2012). Although the author has previously written a quite well-regarded double-decker logic text, and indeed can write with an
engaging lightness of touch, this does not strike me as successful. The long opening Chapter 1 here on Mathematical Foundations (90 pages) will irritate philosophically minded
logicians e.g. with its seeming casualness about use and mention, and is less than ideally
clear. Some of the exposition of these introductory basics e.g. about mathematical induction is not brilliantly handled. Things do get better when the book, at last, gets down
to business in Ch.2 on Algorithms, computable functions and computations, the core of
the book. But of recent books Cooper is definitely to be preferred.
Now to be positive. The inherited literature on computability is huge. But, being very selective,
let me mention three classics from different generations:
R
osza Peter, Recursive Functions (originally published 1950: English translation Academic
Press 1967). This is by one of those logicians who was there at the beginning. It has that
old-school slow-and-steady un-flashy lucidity that makes it still a considerable pleasure to
read. It remains very worth looking at.
Hartley Rogers, Jr., Theory of Recursive Functions and Effective Computability (McGrawHill 1967) is a heavy-weight state-of-the-art-then classic, written at the end of the glory
days of the initial development of the logical theory of computation. It quite speedily gets
advanced. But the opening chapters are still excellent reading and are action-packed. At
least take it out of the library, read the opening chapter or two, and admire!
Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Classical Recursion Theory, Vol. 1 (North Holland, 1989) is wellwritten and discursive, with numerous interesting historical and conceptual asides. Its
over 650 pages long, so it goes further and deeper than other books on the main list above
(and then there is Vol. 2). But it certainly starts off quite gently paced and very accessibly.
A number of books weve already mentioned say something about the fascinating historical
development of the idea of computability: Richard Epstein offers a very helpful 28 page timeline
on Computability and Undecidability at the end of the 2nd edn. of Epstein/Carnielli (which
we mentioned in 3.3. Coopers short first chapter on Hilbert and the Origins of Computability
Theory also gives some of the headlines. Odifreddi too has many historical details. But here are
two more good essays on the history:
Robert I. Soare, The History and Concept of Computability, in E. Griffor, ed., Handbook
of Computability Theory (Elsevier 1999). A detailed and very illuminating 30 page essay,
downloadable from http://www.people.cs.uchicago.edu/soare/History/handbook.pdf.
Robin Gandy, The Confluence of Ideas in 1936 in R. Herken, ed., The Universal Turing Machine: A Half-century Survey (OUP 1988). Seeks to explain why so many of the
absolutely key notions all got formed in the mid-thirties.

5.5.2

Computational complexity

Computer scientists are surprise, surprise! interested in the theory of feasible computation, and it is certainly interesting to know at least a little about the topic of
computational complexity.

44

1. Shawn Hedman A First Course in Logic (OUP 2004), Ch. 7 on Computability

and complexity has a nice review of basic computability theory before some lucid
sections introducing notions of computational complexity.
2. Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation (Thomson, 2nd edn.
2006) is a standard and very well regarded text on computation aimed at computer
scientists. It aims to be very accessible and to take its time giving clear explanations of key concepts and proof ideas. I think this is very successful as a general
introduction and I could well have mentioned the book before. But Im highlighting
the book in this subsection because its last third is on computational complexity.
3. Ofed Goldreich, P, NP, and NP-Completeness (CUP, 2010). Short, clear, and introductory stand-alone treatment of computational complexity.
4. Ashley Montanaro, Computational Complexity, notes for a 2012 Cambridge lecture course: http://www.qi.damtp.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/lecturenotes 10.pdf.
This has a useful quick guide to further reading.
5. You could also look at the opening chapters of the pretty encyclopaedic Sanjeev
Arora and Boaz Barak, Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach** (CUP,
2009). The authors say Requiring essentially no background apart from mathematical maturity, the book can be used as a reference for self-study for anyone
interested in complexity, including physicists, mathematicians, and other scientists, as well as a textbook for a variety of courses and seminars. And it at least
starts very readably. The authors have made a late draft of the book available at
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/theory/index.php/Compbook/Draft.

5.6

G
odelian incompleteness again

If you have looked at my book and/or Boolos and Jeffrey you should now be in a position
to appreciate the terse elegance of
1. Raymond Smullyan, G
odels Incompleteness Theorems, Oxford Logic Guides 19
(Clarendon Press 1992) is delightully short under 140 pages proving some beautiful, slightly abstract, versions of the incompleteness theorems. This is a modern
classic which anyone with a taste for mathematical elegance will find rewarding.
2. Equally short and equally elegant is Melvin Fittings, Incompleteness in the Land
of Sets* (College Publications, 2007). This approaches things from a slightly different angle, relying on the fact that there is a simple correspondence between
natural numbers and hereditarily finite sets (i.e. sets which have a finite number
of members which in turn have a finite number of members which in turn . . . where
all downward membership chains bottom out with the empty set). [I think that, as
with other books from College Publications, it has to be got via print-on-demand
from Amazon.]
In terms of difficulty, these two lovely brief books could easily have appeared among
our introductory readings in Chapter 3. I have put them here because (as I see it) the
simpler, more abstract, stories they tell can probably only be fully appreciated if youve
first met the basics of computability theory and the incompleteness theorems in a more
conventional treatment.
45

You ought also at some stage read an even briefer, and still officially introductory,
treatment of the incompleteness theorems,
3. Craig Smory
nski, The incompleteness theorems in J. Barwise, editor, Handbook
of Mathematical Logic, pp. 821865 (North-Holland, 1977), which covers a lot very
compactly. Available from http://www.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/krajicek/smorynski.pdf.
After these, where should you go if you want to know more about matters more or
less directly to do with the incompleteness theorems?
4. Raymond Smullyan, Diagonalization and Self-Reference, Oxford Logic Guides 27
(Clarendon Press 1994) is an investigation-in-depth around and about the idea of
diagonalization that figures so prominently in proofs of limitative results like the
unsolvability of the halting problem, the arithmetical undefinability of arithmetical
truth, and the incompleteness of arithmetic. Read at least Part I.
5. Torkel Franzen, Inexaustibility: A Non-exhaustive Treatment (Association for Symbolic Logic/A. K. Peters, 2004). The first two-thirds of the book gives another take
on logic, arithmetic, computability and incompleteness. The last third notes that
Godels incompleteness results have a positive consequence: any system of axioms for mathematics that we recognize as correct can be properly extended by
adding as a new axiom a formal statement expressing that the original system
is consistent. This suggests that our mathematical knowledge is inexhaustible, an
essentially philosophical topic to which this book is devoted. Not always easy
(you might want to know something about ordinals before you read this), but very
illuminating.
6. Per Lindstr
om, Aspects of Incompleteness (Association for Symbolic Logic/As K.
Peters, 2nd edn., 2003). This is for enthusiasts. Another terse book, not always
reader-friendly in its choices of notation and brevity of argument, but the more
mathematical reader will find that it again repays the effort.
Going in a slightly different direction, you will recall from my IGT2 or other reading on the second incompleteness theorem that we introduced the so-called derivability
conditions on l (where this is an abbreviation for or at any rate, is closely tied to
Provpxyq, which expresses the claim that the wff , whose Godel number is xy, is
provable in some given theory). The l here functions rather like a modal operator: so
what is its modal logic? This is investigated in a wonderful modern classic
7. George Boolos, The Logic of Provability (CUP, 1993).

5.7

Theories of arithmetic

The readings in 3.3 will have introduced you to the canonical first-order theory of arithmetic, first-order Peano Arithmetic, as well as to some subsystems of PA (in particular,
Robinson Arithmetic) and second-order extensions. And you will already know that firstorder PA has non-standard models (in fact, it even has uncountably many models which
can be built out of natural numbers!).
So what to read next on arithmetic? There actually seems to be something of a gap
in the literature here, and a need for a mid-level book. We have to jump a couple of
levels of difficulty to tackle
46

1. Richard Kayes Models of Peano Arithmetic (Oxford Logic Guides, OUP, 1991)
which tells us a great deal about non-standard models of PA. This will reveal more
about what PA can and cant prove, and will introduce you to some non-Godelian
examples of incompleteness. But this does get pretty challenging in places (its
probably best if youve already worked through some model theory at a morethan-very-basic level), though it is a terrific book.
Kayes book is a modern classic, as is the next suggestion:
2. Petr H
ajek and Pavel Pudl
ak, Metamathematics of First-Order Arithmetic** (Springer 1993). Now freely available from projecteuclid.org. This is pretty encyclopaedic,
but the long first three chapters, say, do remain remarkably accessible for such a
work. This is, eventually, a must-read if you have a serious interest in theories of
arithmetic and incompleteness.
And what about going beyond first-order PA? We know that full second-order PA
(where the second-order quantifiers are constrained to run over all possible sets of numbers) is unaxiomatizable, because the underlying second-order logic is unaxiomatiable.
But there are axiomatizable subsystems of second order arithmetic. These are wonderfully investigated in another encyclopaedic modern classic:
3. Stephen Simpson, Subsystems of Second-Order Logic (Springer 1999; 2nd edn CUP
2009). The focus of this book is the project of reverse mathematics (as it has become known): that is to say, the project of identifying the weakest theories of
numbers-and-sets-of-numbers that are required for proving various characteristic
theorems of classical mathematics.
We know that we can reconstruct classical analysis in pure set theory, and rather
more neatly in set theory with natural numbers as unanalysed urelemente. But
just how much set theory is needed to do the job? The answer is: stunningly little.
The project is introduced very clearly and accessibly in the first chapter, which is
a must-read for anyone interested in the foundations of mathematics. This introduction can be freely downloaded from http://www.math.psu.edu/simpson/sosoa/.
By way of an afterthought Many philosophers who write about the philosophy of mathematics
seem to know surprisingly little real mathematics (other than what they recall about set theory).
Well, if you are interested in formal theories of arithmetic, ordinary informal number theory
is fun too, and at least the beginners slopes can be managed by the novice relatively easily. So
why not take a look at e.g.
John Stillwell, Elements of Number Theory (Springer 2002). This is by a masterly expositor, and is particularly approachable.
G.H. Hardy and E.M. Wright, An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers (OUP 1938,
and still going strong with a 6th edition in 2008). Also aimed at beginning undergraduate
mathematicians and pleasingly accessible.
Alan Baker, A Comprehensive Course in Number Theory (CUP 2012) is a nice recent
textbook (shorter than its title would suggest, too).

5.8

Serious set theory

3.4 gave some suggestions for readings on the elements of set theory. These will have
introduced you to the standard set theory ZFC, and the iterative hierarchy it seeks
47

to describe. They also explained how we can construct the real number system in set
theoretic terms (so giving you a sense of what might be involved in saying that set theory
can be used as a foundation for another mathematical theory). You will have in addition
learnt something about the role of the axiom of choice, and about arithmetic of infinite
cardinal and ordinal numbers. If you looked at the books by Fraenkel/Bar-Hillel/Levy
or by Potter, you will also have noted that standard ZFC is not the only set theory on
the market.
We now press on to . . .

5.8.1

ZFC, with all the bells and whistles

One option is immediately to go for broke and dive in to the modern bible,
1. Thomas Jech, Set Theory, The Third Millennium Edition, Revised and Expanded
(Springer, 2003). The book is in three parts: the first, Jech says, every student
should know, the second every budding set-theorist should master, and the third
consists of various results reflecting the state of the art of set theory at the turn
of the new millennium. Start at page 1 and keep going to page 705 (or until you
feel glutted with set theory, whichever comes first).
This is a masterly achievement by a great expositor. And if youve happily
read e.g. the introductory books by Enderton and then Moschovakis mentioned
earlier in this Guide, then you should be able to cope well with Part I of the book
while it pushes on the story a little with some material on small large cardinals
and other topics. Part II of the book starts by telling you about independence
proofs. The Axiom of Choice is consistent with ZF and the Continuum Hypothesis
is consistent with ZFC, as proved by Godel using the idea of constructible sets.
And the Axiom of Choice is independent of ZF, and the Continuum Hypothesis
is independent with ZFC, as proved by Cohen using the much more tricky idea
of forcing. The rest of Part II tells you more about large cardinals, and about
descriptive set theory. Part III is indeed for enthusiasts.
Now, Jechs book is wonderful, but the sheer size makes it a trifle daunting: it goes
quite a bit further than many will need, and to get there it does speed along a bit faster
than some will feel comfortable with. So what other options are there?
You could start with some preliminary historical orientation. If you looked at the
old book by Fraenkel/Bar-Hillel/Levy which was recommended in 3.4, then you will
already know something of the early days: or there is a nice short overview
2. Jose Ferreir
os, The early development of set theory, The Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/settheory-early/.
And then you could look through the much longer
3. Akhiro Kanomori, The Mathematical Development of Set Theory from Cantor to
Cohen, The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic (1996) pp. 171, a revised version of which
is downloadable from http://math.bu.edu/people/aki/16.pdf.
You will probably need to skip chunks of this at a first pass: but even a partial grasp
will give you a good sense of the lie of the land.
Then to start filling in details, an approachable and admired older book is
4. Frank R. Drake, Set Theory: An Introduction to Large Cardinals (North-Holland,
1974), which at a gentler pace? overlaps with Part I of Jechs bible, but also
will tell you about G
odels Constructible Universe and some more about large
cardinals.
48

But the tough expositional challenge is presenting Cohens idea of forcing. Indeed, in
the excellent
5. Timothy Y. Chow, A beginners guide to forcing, downloadable from
http://arxiv.org/pdf/0712.1320v2.pdf
Chow writes
All mathematicians are familiar with the concept of an open research problem.
I propose the less familiar concept of an open exposition problem. Solving
an open exposition problem means explaining a mathematical subject in
a way that renders it totally perspicuous. Every step should be motivated
and clear; ideally, students should feel that they could have arrived at the
results themselves. The proofs should be natural . . . [i.e., lack] any ad hoc
constructions or brilliancies. . . . I believe that it is an open exposition problem
to explain forcing.
In short: if you find the idea of forcing tough to get your head around, join the club.
Here though is a very widely used and much reprinted textbook, which nicely complements Drakes book and which has (inter alia) a pretty good presentation of forcing:
6. Kenneth Kunen, Set Theory: An Introduction to Independence Proofs (NorthHolland, 1980). Again, if you have read some of the books in 3.4, you should
find this pretty readily accessible, at least until you get to the penultimate chapter on forcing. Kunen has lately published another, totally rewritten, version of
this book as Set Theory* (College Publications, 2011). This later book is quite
significantly longer, covering an amount of more difficult material that has come
to prominence since 1980. Not just because of the additional material, my sense
is that the earlier book is a slightly more approachable read. But youll probably
want to tackle the later version.
Kunen (1980) gives a straight down the middle textbook, starting with what is
basically Cohens original treatment of forcing, though he does relate this to some other
approaches. Here are two variant approaches:
7. Raymond Smullyan and Melvin Fitting, Set Theory and the Continuum Problem*
(OUP 1996, Dover Publications 2010). This medium-sized book is divided into
three parts. Part I is a nice introduction to axiomatic set theory. The shorter
Part II concerns matters round and about Godels consistency proofs via the idea
of constructible sets. Part III gives a different take on forcing (a variant of the
approach taken in Fittings earlier Intuitionistic Logic, Model Theory, and Forcing,
North Holland, 1969). This is beautifully done, as you might expect from two
writers with an enviable knack for wonderfully clear explanations and an eye for
elegance.
8. Keith Devlin, The Joy of Sets (Springer 1979, 2nd edn. 1993) Ch. 6 introduces the
idea of Boolean-Valued Models and their use in independence proofs. The basic
idea is fairly easily grasped, but details get hairy. For more on this theme, see
John L. Bells classic Set Theory: Boolean-Valued Models and Independence Proofs
(Oxford Logic Guides, OUP, 3rd edn. 2005). The relation between this approach
and other approaches to forcing is discussed e.g. in Chows paper and the last
chapter of Smullyan and Fitting.
And after those? Back to Jechs bible, and then oh heavens! there is another blockbuster awaiting you:
49

9. Akihiro Kanamori, The Higher Infinite: Large Cardinals in Set Theory from Their
Beginnings (Springer, 1997, 2nd edn. 2003).
Historical postscript Weve already noted some discussions of the history of set theory. Depending on your interests you might well find one or more of the following to be very helpful/rewarding.
Michael Hallett, Cantorian Set Theory and Limitation of Size (OUP, 1984) is long and
discursive but deservedly a modern classic.
Ivor Grattan-Guinness, The Search for Mathematical Roots 18701940: Logics, Set Theory
and the Foundations of Mathematics from Cantor through Russell to G
odel (Princeton
2000). As the title suggests, this even longer book ranges more widely. Grattan-Guinness
has delved deep into the archives and brings to the book an astonishing amount of learning
about the period, but this doesnt always make for a fun read, and on a closer look some
of the mathematical exposition isnt that well done.
Jose Ferreir
os, Labyrinth of Thought: A History of Set Theory and its Role in Modern
Mathematics (Birkh
auser 1999). (The most fun of the three?)

5.8.2

The Axiom of Choice

But is ZFC the right set theory? Lets start by thinking about the Axiom of Choice in
particular. It is comforting to know from Godel that AC is consistent with ZF (so adding
it doesnt lead to contradiction). But we also know from Cohens forcing argument that
AC is independent with ZF (so accepting ZF doesnt commit you to accepting AC too).
So why buy AC? Is it an optional extra?
Well, AC is just obvious isnt it? Are you really sure? Why so? (See for example Thomas Forster, The Axiom of Choice and Inference to the Best Explanation,
https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/tf/cupbook3AC.pdf, for a very short critical jab at some
arguments that AC is obvious.)
Some of the readings already mentioned will have touched on the question of ACs
status and role. But for an overview/revision of some basics, see
10. John L. Bell, The Axiom of Choice, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/axiom-choice/.
For a very short book also explaining some of the consequences of AC (and some of the
results that you need AC to prove), see
11. Horst Herrlich, Axiom of Choice (Springer 2006), which has chapters rather tantalisingly entitled Disasters without Choice, Disasters with Choice and Disasters
either way.
That already probably tells you more than enough about the impact of AC: but theres
also a famous book by H. Rubin and J.E. Rubin, Equivalents of the Axiom of Choice
(North-Holland 1963; 2nd edn. 1985) which gives over two hundred equivalents of AC!
Next there is the nice short classic
12. Thomas Jech, The Axiom of Choice* (North-Holland 1973, Dover Publications
2008). This proves the G
odel and Cohen consistency and independence results
about AC (without bringing into play everything needed to prove the parallel
results about the Continuum Hypothesis). In particular, there is a nice presentation
of the Fraenkel-Mostowski method of using permutation models. Then later parts
of the book tell us something about what mathematics without choice, and about
alternative axioms that are inconsistent with choice.
50

And for a more recent short book, taking you into new territories (e.g. making links with
category theory), enthusiasts might enjoy
13. John L. Bell, The Axiom of Choice* (College Publications, 2009).
Finally, for more much more! there is a page of links to be found at
14. http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/schectex/ccc/choice.html.
Another historical postscript
treatment is

Again the history here is fascinating and illuminating. The classic

Gregory H. Moore, Zermelos Axiom of Choice: Its Origin, Development, and Influence*
(Springer 1982, Dover Publications 2013).

5.8.3

Alternative set theories

From earlier reading you should have picked up the idea that, although ZFC is the
canonical modern set theory, there are other theories on the market. I mention just a
selection here:
NBG You will have come across mention of this already (e.g. even in the early pages
of Endertons set theory book). And in fact in many of the respects that matter it
isnt really an alternative set theory. So lets get it out of the way first.
We know that the universe of sets in ZFC is not itself a set. But we might think that
this universe is a sort of big collection. Should we explicitly recognize, then, two sorts of
collection, sets and (as they are called in the trade) proper classes which are too big to be
sets? NBG (named for von Neumann, Bernays, Godel: some say VBG) is one such theory
of collections. So NBG in some sense recognizes proper classes, objects having members
but that cannot be members of other entities. NBGs principle of class comprehension
is predicative; i.e. quantified variables in the defining formula cant range over proper
classes but range only over sets, and we get a conservative extension of ZFC (nothing in
the language of sets can be proved in NBG which cant already be proved in ZFC). For
more on this and on other theories with classes as well as sets, see (briefly) Appendix C
of the book by Potter which we mention again in a moment. Also, for a more extended
textbook presentation of NBG, see
1. Elliott Mendelson, Introduction to Mathematical Logic (CRC, 4th edition 1997),
Ch.4.
SP This again is by way of reminder. Recall, earlier in the Guide, we very warmly
recommended
2. Michael Potter, Set Theory and Its Philosophy (OUP 2004).
This presents a version of an axiomatization of set theory due to Dana Scott (hence
Scott-Potter set theory). This axiomatization is consciously guided by the conception
of the set theoretic universe as built up in levels (the conception that, supposedly, also
warrants the axioms of ZF). What Potters book aims to reveal is that we can get a rich
hierarchy of sets, more than enough for mathematical purposes, without committing ourselves to all of ZFC (whose extreme richness comes from the full Axiom of Replacement).
If you havent read Potters book before, now is the time to look at it.
51

ZFA (i.e. ZF AF ` AFA) Here again is the now-familiar hierarchical conception of

the set universe. We start with some non-sets (maybe zero of them in the case of pure
set theory). We collect them into sets (as many different ways as we can). Now we collect
what weve already formed into sets (as many as we can). Keep on going, as far as we
can. On this bottom-up picture, the Axiom of Foundation is compelling (any downward
chain linked by set-membership will bottom out, and wont go round in a circle).
Heres another alternative conception of the set universe. Think of a set as a gadget
that points you at some some things, its members. And those members, if sets, point
to their members. And so on and so forth. On this top-down picture, the Axiom of
Foundation is not so compelling. As we follow the pointers, cant we for example come
back to where we started?
It is well known that in much of the usual development of ZFC the Axiom of Foundation AF does little work. So what about considering a theory of sets which drops AF
and instead has an Anti-Foundation Axiom (AFA), which allows self-membered sets?1
3. Lawrence S. Moss, Non-wellfounded set theory, The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nonwellfounded-set-theory/
4. Peter Aczel, Non-well-founded sets, (CSLI Lecture Notes 1988), is the very readable
classic here. Downloadable from http://standish.stanford.edu/pdf/00000056.pdf.
5. Keith Devlin, The Joy of Sets (Springer, 2nd edn. 1993), Ch. 7. The last chapter
of Devlins book, added to second edition of his book, starts with a very lucid
introduction, and develops some of the theory.
6. Luca Incurvati, The graph conception of set Journal of Philosophical Logic (published online Dec 2012), very illuminatingly explores the motivation for such set
theories.
NF Now for a much more radical departure from ZF. Standard set theory lacks a
universal set because, together with other standard assumptions, the idea that there is a
set of all sets leads to contradiction. But by tinkering with those other assumptions, there
are coherent theories with universal sets. For very readable presentations concentrating
on Quines NF (New Foundations), and explaining motivations as well as technical
details, see
7. T. F. Forster, Set Theory with a Universal Set Oxford Logic Guides 31 (Clarendon
Press, 2nd edn. 1995). A classic: very worth reading even if you are committed
ZF-iste.
8. M. Randall Holmes, Elementary Set Theory with a Universal Set** (Cahiers du
Centre de Logique No. 10, Louvain, 1998). This can now be freely downloaded
from the authors website: http://math.boisestate.edu/holmes/holmes/head.ps.
IST Leibniz and Newton invented infinitesimal calculus in the 1660s: a century and
a half later we learnt how to rigorize the calculus without invoking infinitely small
quantities. Still, the idea of infinitesimals retains a certain intuitive appeal, and in the
1960s, Abraham Robinson created a theory of hyperreal numbers: this yields a rigorous
formal treatment of infinitesimal calculus (you will have seen this mentioned in e.g.
Endertons Mathematical Introduction to Logic, 2.8, or van Dalens Logic and Structure,
1

ZFA is sometimes used to label a theory of this kind: but careful, at least as often the label means
ZF with atoms, i.e. with urelemente, i.e. it means ZFU.

52

p. 123). Later, a simpler and arguably more natural approach, based on so-called Internal
Set Theory, was invented by Edward Nelson. As Wikipedia put it, IST is an extension
of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory in that alongside the basic binary membership relation,
it introduces a new unary predicate standard which can be applied to elements of the
mathematical universe together with some axioms for reasoning with this new predicate.
Starting in this way we can recover features of Robinsons theory in a simpler framework.
9. Edward Nelson, Internal set theory: a new approach to nonstandard analysis
Bulletin of The American Mathematical Society 83 (1977), pp. 11651198. Now
freely available from projecteuclid.org.
10. Nader Vakin, Real Analysis through Modern Infinitesimals (CUP, 2011). A monograph developing Nelsons ideas whose early chapters are quite approachable and
may well appeal to some.
Aside If we are going to talk about non-standard analysis, we really must also somewhere
mention
John L. Bell, Continuity and infinitesimals, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/continuity/ for a fine overview, and
John L. Bell, A Primer of Infinitesimal Analysis (CUP 2nd edn. 2008), a lovely, and very
short, book, presenting a theory based on quite different framework from IST, this time
one connected to topos theory: see below.

ETCS Famously, Zermelo constructed his theory of sets by gathering together some
principles of set-theoretic reasoning that seemed actually to be used by working mathematicians (engaged in e.g. the rigorization of analysis or the development of point set
topology), hoping to get a theory strong enough for mathematical use while weak enough
to avoid paradox. But does he overshoot? Weve already noted that SP is a weaker theory
which may suffice. For a more radical approach, see
11. Tom Leinster, Rethinking set theory, posted at http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.6543
gives an advertising pitch for the merits of Lawveres Elementary Theory of the
Category of Sets, and . . .
12. F. William Lawvere and Robert Rosebrugh, Sets for Mathematicians (CUP 2003)
gives a very accessible presentation which in principle doesnt require that you
have already done any category theory.
But perhaps to fully appreciate whats going on, you will have to go on to dabble in
category theory (see 5.10 of this Guide!).
IZF, CZF ZF/ZFC has a classical logic: what if we change the logic to inituitionistic
logic? what if we have more general constructivist scruples? The place to start exploring
is
13. Laura Crosilla, Set Theory: Constructive and Intuitionistic ZF, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory-constructive.
Then for one interesting possibility, look at the version of constructive ZF in
14. Peter Aczel and Michael Rathjen, Notes on Constructive Set Theory** (Draft,
2008), http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/logic/mathlogaps/workshop/CST-bookJune-08.pdf.
53

Yet more? Well yes, we can keep on going. Take a look, for example, at SEAR
(http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/SEAR). But we must call a halt! For a brisk overview,
putting many of these various set theories into some sort of order, and mentioning yet
further alternatives, see
15. M. Randall Holmes, Alternative axiomatic set theories, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/settheory-alternative/.
If thats a bit too brisk, then (if you can get access to it) theres what can be thought of
as a bigger, better, version here:
16. M. Randall Holmes, Thomas Forster and Thierry Libert. Alternative Set Theories. In Dov Gabbay, Akihiro Kanamori, and John Woods, eds. Handbook of the
History of Logic, vol. 6, Sets and Extensions in the Twentieth Century, pp. 559-632.
(Elsevier/North-Holland 2012).

5.9

Constructivism

At the end of the last section on set theory, we briefly mentioned intuitionist and constructivist set theories. Lets now think about intuitionism and constructivism more
generally. Again, the Stanford Encyclopedia is there to help us to make a start. Neither
of the following two pieces is perhaps ideally accessible, but they are worth skimming to
get a first sense of some issues:
1. Douglas Bridges, Constructive Mathematics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mathematics-constructive/.
2. Rosalie Iemhoff, Intuitionism in the Philosophy of Mathematics, The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intuitionism/.
And one thing will immediately become clear: there is quite a variety of approaches to
constructive mathematics, broadly understood. For more on these, see
3. A. S. Troelstra and D. van Dalen, Constructivism in Mathematics: An Introduction
Vol. 1 (North-Holland 1988). A classic guide.
On intuitionistic mathematics in particular (picking up from the reading on intuitionist
logic mentioned in 4.3.1), see
4. Michael Dummett, Elements of Intuitionism, Oxford Logic Guides 39 (OUP 2nd
edn. 2000). Another classic but (it has to be said) quite tough. The final chapter,
Concluding philosophical remarks, is very well worth looking at, even if you bale
out from reading all the formal work that precedes it.
On Bishops form of constructivism, read the man himself:
5. Errett Bishop and Douglas Bridges, Constructive Analysis (Springer 1985). Do
read the first two or three lucid chapters which will give you the flavour of the
enterprise.
Postscript Another line of development of constructivist thought, of particular interest to computer science, is constructivist type theory. Per Martin-Lofs 1984 lectures on Intuitionistic Type

54

Theory can be freely downloaded from http://intuitionistic.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/martinlof-tt.pdf. For intriguing, discursive, and not-very-long reflections on the place of this approach
in the intellectual landscape, see Johan Georg Granstrom, Treatise on Intuitionistic Type Theory
(Springer 2011), which is philosophically a bit flakey but worth looking at all the same.

5.10

Category theory

Last, but certainly not least, we come to category theory. Philosophers and mathematicians alike will have probably come across claims that category theory or that division
of it which is topos theory provides a new foundation (or a different sort of foundation) to mathematics, in some sense rivalling set theory in its sweep and generality. So
philosophers and mathematicians with foundational interests may well want to know
what the fuss is about.
Now, there are various routes in towards category theory, and the best route to take
will depend on your background. There is a canonical book by Saunders Mac Lane,
Categories for the Working Mathematician (Springer 2nd edn 1997): but the working
mathematician here is assumed to be an already seriously high-powered player in the
maths game (not the sort of person likely to be needing to read this Guide!). So set that
book aside as a far ambition: the initial suggestions here are directed to a very different
audience, philosophers and mathematicians without a high level background in topology
etc.
There is, in fact, a brisk introductory encyclopaedia article notionally addressed to
philosophers,
1. Jean-Pierre Marquis, Category Theory, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/category-theory/,
but I suspect most beginners wont be very much enlightened, as this is already pretty
abstract. So lets start further back and note some particularly introductory and expansive books that I found helpful in trying to teach myself just a bit of category theory
a few years ago. Ill put them into what strikes me in retrospect in something like
order of difficulty:
2. F. William Lawvere and Stephen H. Schanuel, Conceptual Mathematics: A First
Introduction to Categories (CUP 2nd edn. 2009). A gentle introduction that slowly
but surely introduces you to new categorial ways of thinking about some familiar
things. The second edition is notably better than the first because it adds chapters
that ease the transitions to more advanced topics.
3. Weve already mentioned F. William Lawvere and Robert Rosebrugh, Sets for
Mathematicians (CUP 2003) in 5.8.3 on alternative sets theories. It gives a very
accessible presentation which introduces a different way of thinking about sets.
4. Robert Goldblatt, Topoi: The Categorial Analysis of Logic* (North-Holland 1979,
Dover 2009). Again pretty gentle and extremely lucid, and covers a good deal of
ground. (Goldblatts history of the origins of category theory is arguably unreliable,
but the mathematical exposition is very nicely done.)
5. Harold Simmons, An Introduction to Category Theory (CUP, 2011) is also introductory, and written for self-study with oodles of exercises (and the solutions
available online). Has something of the conversational tone of the lecture room,
and you could well find it engaging and helpful.
55

Certainly read (2) and (3) before going up a notch to one of the next two two books
which are again intended for beginners, but somewhat tougher affairs, being brisker and
more compressed. Indeed, I wouldnt recommend diving into either from a cold start:
the shock to the system will mean that you probably wont get very far. However, if
you have warmed up with some of those really introductory texts, then both these are
excellent:
6. Colin McLarty, Elementary Categories, Elementary Toposes, Oxford Logic Guides
21 (OUP 1992).
7. Steve Awodey, Category Theory, Oxford Logic Guides 49 (OUP 2nd end 2010).
Read them both (in the order that works for you), and you will be well launched and
can explore further under your own steam.
At a similar sort of level you will find e.g. the volumes of Francis Borceuxs Handbook
and the strange provocations of Paul Taylors Practical Foundations. And then down the
road you can now just about catch sight Saunders Mac Lane and Ieke Moerdijks Sheaves
in Geometry and Logic and the looming presence of Peter Johnstones monumental
Elephant. But enough already . . .

56

Appendix A

The Big Books and not so big

books on Mathematical Logic
The traditional menu for a first serious Mathematical Logic course is basic first order
logic with some model theory, the basic theory of computability and related matters
(like Godels incompleteness theorem), and introductory set theory. The plan in this
Appendix is to look at some of the Big (or sometimes not so big) Books that aim to
cover an amount of this core menu, to give an indication of what they cover and more
importantly how they cover it, while commenting on style, accessibility, etc.
These wider-ranging books dont always provide the best introductions now available
to this or that particular area: but they can still be very useful aids to widening and
deepening your understanding and can reveal how topics from different areas fit together.
I dont promise to discuss [eventually] every worthwhile Big Book, or to give similarly
detailed coverage to those I do consider. But Im working on the principle that even a
patchy guide, very much work in progress, is much better than none.
Sections start with a general indication of the coverage of the book, and some general
remarks. Then there is usually, in small print, a more detailed description of contents,
and more specific comments. Finally, theres a summary verdict. The books are listed in
chronological order of first publication. Covered so far are:

A.1 Kleene, 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A.2 Mendelson, 1964, 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58
59

A.3 Shoenfield, 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

A.4 Kleene, 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

61

A.5 Robbin, 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

A.6 Enderton, 1972, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

A.7 Ebbinghaus, Flum and Thomas, 1978, 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

A.8 Van Dalen, 1980, 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66

A.9 Prestel and Delzell, 1986, 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

68

A.10 Johnstone, 1987 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

68

A.11 Hodel, 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

69

A.12 Goldstern and Judah, 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

70

A.13 Leary, 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71

A.14 Forster, 2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73

A.15 Hedman, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

74

57

A.16 Hinman, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75

A.17 Chiswell and Hodges, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78

A.1

Kleene, 1952

First published sixty years ago, Stephen Cole Kleenes Introduction to Metamathematics*
(North-Holland, 1962; reprinted Ishi Press 2009: pp. 550) for a while held the field
as a survey treatment of first-order logic (without going much past the completeness
theorem), and a more in-depth treatment of the theory of computable functions, and
Godels incompleteness theorems.
In a 1991 note about writing the book, Kleene notes that up to 1985, about 17,500
copies of the English version of his text were sold, as were thousands of various translations (including a sold-out first print run of 8000 of the Russian translation). So this
is a book with a quite pivotal influence on the education of later logicians, and on their
understanding of the fundamentals of recursive function theory and the incompleteness
theorems in particular.
But it isnt just nostalgia that makes old hands continue to recommend it. Kleenes
book remains particularly lucid and accessible: it is often discursive, pausing to explain
the motivation behind formal ideas. It is still a pleasure to read (or at least, it ought
to be a pleasure for anyone interested in logic enough to be reading this far into the
Guide!). And, modulo relatively superficial presentational matters, youll probably be
struck by a sense of familiarity when reading through, as aspects of his discussions
evidently shape many later textbooks (not least my own Godel book). The Introduction
to Metamathematics remains a really impressive achievement: and not one to be admired
only from afar, either.
Some details Chs. 13 are introductory. Theres a little about enumerability and countability
(Cantors Theorem); then a chapter on natural numbers, induction, and the axiomatic method;
then a little tour of the paradoxes, and possible responses.
Chs. 47 are a gentle introduction to the propositional and predicate calculus and a formal
system which is in fact first-order Peano Arithmetic (you need to be aware that the identity rules
are treated as part of the arithmetic, not the logic). Although Kleenes official system is Hilbertstyle, he shows that natural deduction introduction and elimination rules can be thought of as
derived rules in his system, so it all quickly becomes quite user-friendly. (He doesnt at this point
prove the completeness theorem for his predicate logic: as I said, things go quite gently at the
outset!)
Ch. 8 starts work on Formal number theory, showing that his formal arithmetic has nice
properties, and then defines what it is for a formal predicate to capture (numeralwise represent)
a numerical relation. Kleene then proves Godels incompleteness theorem, assuming a Lemma
eventually to be proved in his Chapter 10 about the capturability of the relation m numbers
a proof [in Kleenes system] of the sentence with number n.
Ch. 9 gives an extended treatment of primitive recursive functions, and then Ch. 10 deals
with the arithmetization of syntax, yielding the Lemma needed for the incompleteness theorem.
Chs. 11-13 then give a nice treatment of general (total) recursive functions, partial recursive
functions, and Turing computability. This is all very attractively done.
The last two chapters, forming the last quarter of the book, go under the heading Additional
Topics. In Ch. 14, after proving the completeness theorem for the predicate calculus without
and then with identity, Kleene discusses the decision problem. And the final Ch. 15 discusses
Gentzen systems, the normal form theorem, intuitionistic systems and Gentzens consistency
proof for arithmetic.

58

Summary verdict Can still be warmly recommended as an enjoyable and illuminating

presentation of this fundamental material, written by someone who was himself so closely
engaged in the early developments back in the glory days. It should be entirely accessible
if you have managed e.g. Chiswell and Hodges and then my Godel book, and will enrich
and broaden your understanding.

A.2

Mendelson, 1964, 2009

Elliot Mendelsons Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Van Nostrand, 1964: pp. 300) was
first published in the distinguished and influential company of The University Series in
Undergraduate Mathematics. It has been much used in graduate courses for philosophers
since: a 4th edition was published by Chapman Hall in 1997 (pp. 440), with a slightly
expanded 5th edition being published in 2009. I will here compare the first and fourth
editions, as these are the ones I know.
Even in the later editions this isnt, in fact, a very big Big Book (many of the added
pages of the later editions are due to there now being answers to exercises): the length
is kept under control in part by not covering a great deal, and in part by a certain
brisk terseness. As the Series title suggests, the intended level of the book is upper
undergraduate mathematics, and the book does broadly keep to that aim. Mendelson
is indeed pretty clear; however, his style is of the times, and will strike many modern
readers as dry and rather old-fashioned. (Some of the choices of typography are not
wonderfully pretty either, and this can make some pages look as if they will be harder
going than they really turn out to be.)
Some details After a brief introduction, Ch. 1 is on the propositional calculus. It covers semantics first (truth-tables, tautologies, adequate sets of connectives), then an axiomatic proof
system. The treatments dont change much between editions, and will probably only be of interest if youve never encountered a Hilbert-style axiomatic system before. The fine print of how
Mendelson regards his symbolic apparatus is interesting: if you read him carefully, youll see that
the expressions in his formal systems are not sentences, not expressions of the kind that on
interpretation can be true or false but are schemata, what he calls statement forms. But this
relatively idiosyncratic line about how the formalism is to be read, which for a while (due to
Quines influence) was oddly popular among philosophers, doesnt much affect the development.
Ch. 2 is on quantification theory, again in an axiomatic style. The fourth edition adds to
the end of the chapter more sections on model theory: there is a longish section on ultra-powers
and non-standard analysis, then theres (too brief) a nod to semantic trees, and finally a new
discussion of quantification allowing empty domains. The extra sections in the fourth edition are
a definite bonus: without them, there is nothing special to recommend this chapter, if you have
worked through the suggestions in 2.2, and in particular the chapters in van Dalens book.
Ch. 3 is titled Formal number theory. It presents a formal version of first-order Peano Arithmetic, and shows you can prove some expected arithmetic theorems within it. Then Mendelson
defines the primitive recursive and the (total) recursive functions, shows that these are representable (capturable) in PA. It then considers the arithmetization of syntax, and proves Godels
first incompleteness theorem and Rossers improvement. The chapter then proves Churchs Theorem about the decidability of arithmetic. One difference between editions is that the later proof
of G
odels theorem goes via the Diagonalization Lemma; another is that there is added a brief
treatment of L
obs Theorem. At the time of publication of the original addition, this Chapter was
a quite exceptionally useful guide thorough the material. But now at least if youve read my
G
odel book or the equivalent then there is nothing to divert you here, except that Mendelson
does go through every single stage of laboriously showing that the relation m-numbers-a-PAproof-of-the-sentence-numbered-n is primitive recursive.

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Ch. 4 is on set theory, and unusually for a textbook the system presented is NBG
(von Neumann/Bernays/G
odel) rather than ZF(C). In the first edition, this chapter is under
fifty pages, and evidently the coverage cant be very extensive and it also probably goes too
rapidly for many readers. The revised edition doesnt change the basic treatment (much) but
adds sections comparing NBG to a number of other set theories. So while this chapter certainly
cant replace the introductions to set theory recommended in 3.4, it could be worth skimming
briskly through the chapter in later editions to learn about NBG and other deviations from ZF.
The original Ch. 5 on effective computability starts with a discussion of Markov algorithms
(again, unusual for a textbook), then treats Turing algorithms, then Herbrand-Godel computability and proves the equivalence of the three approaches. There are discussions of recursive enumerability and of the Kleene-Mostowski hierarchy. And the chapter concludes with a short discussion
of undecidable problems. In the later edition, the material is significantly rearranged, with Turing taking pride of place and other treatments of computability relegated to near the end of the
chapter; also more is added on decision problems. Since the texts mentioned in 3.3 dont talk
about Markov or Herbrand-G
odel computability, you might want to dip into the chapter briefly
to round out your education!
I should mention the appendices. The first edition has a very interesting though brisk appendix giving a version of Sch
uttes variation on a Gentzen-style consistency proof for PA. Rather
sadly, perhaps, this is missing from later editions. The fourth edition has instead an appendix
on second-order logic.

Summary verdict Moderately accessible and very important in its time, but there is
now not so much reason to plough through this book end-to-end. It doesnt have the
charm and readability of Kleene 1952, and there are now better separate introductions
to each of the main topics . You could skim the early chapters if youve never seen
axiomatic systems of logic being used in earnest: its good for the soul. The appendix
that appears only in the first edition is interesting for enthusiasts. Look at the section
on non-standard analysis in the revised editions. If set theory is your thing, you should
dip in to get the headline news about NBG. And some might want to expand their
knowledge of definitions of computation by looking at Ch. 5.

A.3

Shoenfield, 1967

Joseph R. Shoenfields Mathematical Logic (Addison-Wesley, 1967: pp. 334) is officially

intended as a text for a first-year [maths] graduate course. It has, over the years, been
much recommended and much used (a lot of older logicians first learnt their serious logic
from it).
This book, however, is hard going a significant step or two up in level from Mendelson though the added difficulty in mode of presentation seems to me not always to be
necessary. I recall it as being daunting when I first encountered it as a student. Looking
back at the book after a very long time, and with the benefit of greater knowledge, I
have to say I am not any more enticed: it is still a tough read.
So this book can, I think, only be recommended to hard-core mathmos who already
know a fair amount and can cherry-pick their way through the book. It does have heaps
of hard exercises, and some interesting technical results are in fact buried there. But
whatever the virtues of the book, they dont include approachability or elegance or
particular student-friendliness.
Some details Chs. 14 cover first order logic, including the completeness theorem. It has to be
said that the logical system chosen is rebarbative. The primitives are , _, D, and . Leaving aside
the identity axioms, the axioms are the instances of excluded middle, instances of p q Dpq,
and then there are five rules of inference. So this neither has the cleanness of a Hilbert system

60

nor the naturalness of a natural deduction system. Nothing is said to motivate this seemingly
horrible choice as against others.
Ch. 5 is a brisk introduction to some model theory getting as far as the Ryll-Nardjewski
theorem. I believe that the algebraic criteria for a first-order theory to admit elimination of
quantifiers given here are original to Shoenfield. But this is surely all done very rapidly (unless
you are using it as a terse revision course from quite an advanced base, going beyond what you
will have picked up from the reading suggested in our 3.2 above).
Chs. 68 cover the theory of recursive functions and formal arithmetic. The take-it-or-leave-it
style of presentation continues. Shoenfield defines the recursive functions as those got from an
initial class by composition and regular minimization: again, no real motivation for the choice of
definition is given (and e.g. the definition of the primitive recursive functions is relegated to the
exercises). Unusually for a treatment at this sort of level, the discussion of recursion theory in
Ch. 8 goes far enough to cover a G
odelian Dialectica-style proof of the consistency of arithmetic,
though the presentation once more wins no prizes for accessibility.
Ch. 9 on set theory is perhaps the books real original raison detre; in fact, it is a quarter
of the whole text. The discussion starts by briskly motivating the ZF axioms by appeal to the
conception of the set universe as built in stages (an approach that has become very common but
at the time of publication was I think much less usually articulated); but this isnt the place to
look for an in depth development of that idea. For a start, there is Shoenfields own article The
axioms of set theory, Handbook of mathematical logic, ed. J. Barwise, (North-Holland, 1977) pp.
321344.
We get a brusque development of the elements of set theory inside ZF (and then ZFC), and
something about the constructible universe. Then there is the first extended textbook presentation of Cohens 1963 independence results via forcing, published just four years previous to the
publication of this book: set theory enthusiasts might want to look at this to help round out
their understanding of the forcing idea. The discussion also touches on large cardinals.
This last chapter was in some respects a highly admirable achievement in its time: but it is
equally surely not now the best place to start with set theory in general or forcing in particular,
given the availability of later presentations.

Summary verdict This is pretty tough going. Now surely only for very selective dipping
into by already-well-informed enthusiasts.

A.4

Kleene, 1967

In the preface to his Mathematical Logic* (John Wiley 1967, Dover reprint 2002: pp.
398), Stephen Cole Kleene writes
After the appearance in 1952 of my Introduction to Metamathematics, written
for students at the first-year graduate level, I had no expectation of writing
another text. But various occasions arose which required me to think about
how to present parts of the same material more briefly, to a more general
audience, or to students at an earlier educational level. These newer expositions were received well enough that I was persuaded to prepare the present
book for undergraduate students in the Junior year.
Youd expect, therefore, that this later book would be more accessible, a friendlier read,
than Kleenes remarkable IM. But in fact, this doesnt actually strike me as the case. Id
still recommend reading the older book, augmented by one chapter of this later Little
Kleene. To explain:
Some details The book divides into two parts. The first part, Elementary Mathematical Logic
has three chapters. Ch. 1 is on the propositional calculus (including a Kalmar-style completeness
proof). This presents a Hilbert-style proof system with an overlay of derived rules which look

61

rather natural-deduction-like (but arent the real deal) There is a lot of fussing over details in
rather heavy-handed ways. I couldnt recommend anyone nowadays starting here, while if youve
already read a decent treatment of the propositional calculus (and e.g. looked at Mendelson to
see how things work in a Hilbert-style framework) you wont get much more out of this.
Much the same goes for the next two chapters. Ch. 2 gives an axiomatic version of the
predicate calculus without identity, and Ch. 3 adds identity. (Note, a completeness proof doesnt
come to the final chapter of the book). Again, these chapters are not done with a sufficiently
light touch to make them a particularly attractive read now.
The second part of the book is titled Mathematical Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics. Ch.4 is basically an abridged version of the opening three chapters of IM, covering the
paradoxes, the idea of an axiomatic system, introducing formal number theory. You might like
to read in particular 3637 on Hilbert vs. Brouwer and metamathematics.
Ch. 5 is a sixty page chapter on Computability and Decidability. Kleene is now on his home
ground, and he presents the material (some original to him) in an attractive and illuminating
way, criss-crossing over some of the same paths trodden in later chapters of IM. In particular, he
uses arguments for incompleteness and undecidability turning on use of the Kleene T -predicate
(compare 33.7 of IGT1 or 43.8 of IGT2 ). This chapter is certainly worth exploring.
Finally, the long Ch. 6 proves the completeness theorem for predicate logic by Beth/Hintikka
rather than by Henkin (as we would now think of it, he in effect shows the completeness of a
tree system for logic in the natural way). But nicer versions of this approach are available. The
last few sections cover some supplementary material (on Gentzen systems, Herbrands Theorem,
etc.) but again I think all of it is available more accessibly elsewhere

Summary verdict Do read Chapter 5 on computability, incompleteness, decidability

and closely related topics. This is nicely done, complements Kleenes earlier treatment
of the same material, and takes an approach which is interestingly different from what
you will mostly see elsewhere.

A.5

Robbin, 1969

Joel W. Robbins Mathematical Logic: A First Course* (W. A Benjamin, 1969, Dover
reprint 2006: pp. 212) is not exactly a Big Book. The main text is just 170 pages long.
But it does range over both formal logic (first-order and second-order), and formal arithmetic, primitive recursive functions, and Godelian incompleteness. Robbin, as you might
guess, has to be quite brisk (in part he achieves brevity by leaving a lot of significant
results to be proved as more or less challenging exercises). However, the book remains
approachable and has some nice and unusual features for which it can be recommended.
Some details Ch. 1 is on the propositional calculus. Robbin presents an axiomatic system whose
primitives are and K or rather, in his notation, and f. The system, including the dotty
syntax which gives us wffs like p1 p2 p1 f, is a version of Alzono Churchs system in
his Introduction to Mathmatical Logic, Vol. 1 (1944/1956), except that where Church lays down
three specific wffs as axioms and has a substitution rule for deriving variant wffs, Robbin lays
down three axiom schemas. [Perhaps I should say something about Churchs classic book in this
Guide: but thats for another day.]
As in later chapters, Robbin buries some interesting results in the extensive exercises. Heres
one, pointed out to me by David Auerbach. Robbin defines negation in the obvious way from
his two logical primitives, so that def p fq. And then his three axiom schemas can
all be stated in terms of and , and his one rule is modus ponens. This system is complete.
However, if we take the alternative language with and primitive, then the same deductive
system (with the same axioms and rules) is not complete. Thats a nice little surprise, and it is
worth trying to work out just why it is true.

62

Ch. 2 briefly covers first-order logic, including the completeness theorem. Then Ch. 3 introduces what Robbin calls First-order (Primitive) Recursive Arithmetic (RA). Robbin defines
the primitive recursive functions, and then defines a language which has a function expression
for each p.r. function f (the idea is to have a complex function expression built up to reflect a
full definition of f by primitive recursion and/or composition ultimately in terms of the initial
functions). RA has axioms for the logic plus axioms governing the expressions for the initial
functions, and then there are axioms for dealing with complex functional expressions in terms of
their constituents. RA also has all instances of the induction schema for open wffs of the language
(so for cognoscenti this is a stronger theory than what is usually called Primitive Recursive
Arithmetic these days, which normally has induction only for quantifier-free wffs).
Ch. 4 explores the arithmetization of syntax of RA. Since RA has every p.r. function built
in, we dont then have to go through the palaver of showing that we are dealing with a theory
which can represent all p.r. functions (in the way we have to if we take standard PA as our base
theory of interest). So in Ch. 5 Robbin can prove Godels incompleteness theorem for RA in a
more pain-free way.
Ch. 6 then turns to second-order logic, introduces a version of second-order PA2 with just the
successor relation as primitive non-logical vocabulary. Robbin shows that all the p.r. functions
can be explicitly defined in PA2 , so the incompleteness theorem carries over.

Summary verdict Robbins book offers a different route through a rather different selection of material than is usual, accessibly written and still worth reading (you will
be able to go though quite a bit of it pretty rapidly if you are up to speed with the
relevant basics from this Guides 2.2 and 3.3). Look especially at Robbins Ch. 3 for
the unusually detailed story about how to build a language with a function expression
for every p.r. function, and the last chapter for how in effect to do the same in PA2 .

A.6

Enderton, 1972, 2002

The first edition of Herbert B. Endertons A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (Academic Press, 1972: pp. 295) rapidly established itself as much-used textbook among
the mathematicians it was aimed towards. But it has also been used to in math. logic
courses offered to philosopers. A second edition was published in 2002, and a glance
at the section headings indicates much the same overall structure: but there are many
local changes and improvements, and Ill comment here on this later version of the book
(which by now should be equally widely available in libraries). The author died in 2010,
but his webpages live on, including one with his own comments on his second edition:
http://www.math.ucla.edu/hbe/.
Endertons text deals with first order-logic and a smidgin of model theory, followed
by a look at formal arithmetic, recursive functions and incompleteness. A final chapter
covers second-order logic and some other matters.
A Mathematical Introduction to Logic eventually became part of a logical trilogy,
with the publication of the wonderfully lucid Elements of Set Theory (1977) and Computability Theory (2010). The later two volumes strike me as masterpieces of exposition,
providing splendid entry level treatments of their material. The first volume, by contrast, is not the most approachable first pass through its material. It is good (often very
good), but Id say at a notch up in difficulty from what you might be looking for in an
introduction to the serious study of first-order logic and/or incompleteness.
Some details After a brisk Ch. 0 (Some useful facts about sets, for future reference), Enderton
starts with a 55 page Ch. 1, Sentential Logic. Some might think this chapter to be slightly odd.
For the usual motivation for separating off propositional logic and giving it an extended treatment

63

at the beginning of a book at this level is that this enables us to introduce and contrast the key
ideas of semantic entailment and of provability in a formal deductive system, and then explain
strategies for soundness and completeness proofs, all in a helpfully simple and uncluttered initial
framework. But (except for some indications in final exercises) there is no formal proof system
mentioned in Endertons chapter.
So what does happen in this chapter? Well, we do get a proof of the expressive completeness
of t^, _, u, etc. We also get an exploration (which can be postponed) of the idea of proofs
by induction and the Recursion Theorem, and based on these we get proper proofs of unique
readability and the uniqueness of the extension of a valuation of atoms to a valuation of a set of
sentences containing them (perhaps not the most inviting things for a beginner to be pausing long
over). We get a direct proof of compactness. And we get a first look at the ideas of effectiveness
and computability.
The core Ch. 2, First-Order Logic, is over a hundred pages long, and covers a good deal. It
starts with an account of first-order languages, and then there is a lengthy treatment of the idea
of truth in a structure. This is pretty clearly done and mathematicians should be able to cope
quite well (but does Enderton forget his officially intended audience on p. 83 where he throws in
an unexplained commutative diagram?). Still, readers might sometimes appreciate rather more
explanation (for example, surely it would be worth saying a bit more than that In order to define
is true in A for sentences and structures A, we will find it desirable [sic] first to define a
more general concept involving wffs, i.e. satisfaction by sequences).
Enderton then at last introduces a deductive proof system (110 pages into the book). He
chooses a Hilbert-style presentation, and if you are not already used to such a system, you wont
get much of a feel for how they work, as there are very few examples before the discussion
turns to metatheory (even Mendelsons presentation of a similar Hilbert system is here more
helpful). Then, as youd expect, we get the soundness and completeness theorems. The proof
of the latter by Henkins method is nicely chunked up into clearly marked stages, and again a
serious mathematics student should cope well: but this is still not, I think, a best buy among
initial presentations.
The chapter ends with a little model theory compactness, the LS theorems, interpretations
between theorems all rather briskly done, and there is an application to the construction of
infinitesimals in non-standard analysis which is surely going to be too compressed for a first
encounter with the ideas.
Ch. 3, Undecidability, is also a hundred pages long and again covers a great deal. After
a preview introducing three somewhat different routes to (versions of) Godels incompleteness
theorem, we initially meet:
1. A theory of natural numbers with just the successor function built in (which is shown to be
complete and decidable, and a decision procedure by elimination of quantifiers is given).
2. A theory with successor and the order relation (also shown to admit elimination of quantifiers and to be complete).
3. Presburger arithmetic (shown to be decidable by a quantifier elimination procedure, and
shown not to define multiplication)
4. Robinson Arithmetic with exponentiation.
The discussion then turns to the notions of definability and representability. We are taken
through a long catalogue of functions and relations representable in Robinson-Arithmetic-withexponentiation, including functions for encoding and decoding sequences. Next up, we get the
arithmetization of syntax done at length, leading as youd expect to the incompleteness and
undecidability results.
But we arent done with this chapter yet. We get (sub)sections on recursive enumerability,
the arithmetic hierarchy, partial recursive functions, register machines, the second incompleteness
theorem for Peano Arithmetic, applications to set theory, and finally we learn how to use the function trick so we can get take our results to apply to any nicely axoimatized theory containing
plain Robinson Arithmetic.
As is revealed by that quick description there really is a lot in Ch. 3. To be sure, the
material here is not mathematically difficult in itself (indeed it is one of the delights of this area
that the initial Big Results come so quickly). However, I do doubt that such an action-packed

64

presentation is the best way to first meet this material. It would, however, make for splendid
revision-consolidation-extension reading after tackling e.g. my Godel book.
The final Ch. 4 is much shorter, on Second-Order Logic. This goes very briskly at the
outset. It again wouldnt be my recommended introduction for this material, though it could
make useful supplementary reading for those wanting to get clear about the relation between
second-order logic, Henkin semantics, and many-sorted first-order logic.

Summary verdict To repeat, A Mathematical Introduction to Logic is good in many

ways, but is in my view often a step or two more difficult in mode of presentation than
will suit many readers wanting an introduction to the material it covers. However, if you
have already read an entry-level presentation of first order logic (e.g. Chiswell/Hodges)
then you could read Chs 1 and 2 as revision/consolidation. And if you have already read
an entry-level presentation on incompleteness (e.g. my book) then it could be well worth
reading Ch. 3 as bringing the material together in a somewhat different way.

A.7

Ebbinghaus, Flum and Thomas, 1978, 1994

We now turn to consider H.-D. Ebbinghaus, J. Flum and W. Thomas, Mathematical

Logic (Springer, 2nd end. 1994: pp. 289). This is the English translation of a book
first published in German in 1978, and appears in a series Undergraduate Texts in
Mathematics, which indicates the intended level: parts of the book, however, do seem
more than a little ambitious for most undergraduates.
EFTs book is often warmly praised and is (I believe) quite widely used. But revisiting
it, I cant find myself wanting to recommend it as a good place to start, certainly not for
philosophers but I wouldnt recommend it for mathematicians either. The presentation
of the core material on the syntax and semantics of first-order logic in the first half of
the book is done more accessibly and more elegantly elsewhere. In the second half of
the book, the chapters do range widely across interesting material. But again most of
the discussions will go too quickly if you havent encountered the topics before, and if
you want revision/amplification of what you already know you will mostly do better
elsewhere.
Some details The book is divided into two parts. EFT start Part A with a gentle opening
chapter talking about a couple of informal mathematical theories (group theory, the theory of
equivalence relations), giving a couple of simple informal proofs in those theories. They then stand
back to think about what goes on in the proofs, and introduce the project of formalization. So
far, so good.
Ch. 2 describes the syntax of first-order languages, and Ch. 3 does the semantics. The presentation goes at a fairly gentle pace, with some useful asides (e.g. on handling the many-sorted
languages of informal mathematics using a many-sorted calculus vs. use restricted quantifiers in
a single-sorted calculus). EFT though do make quite heavy work of some points of detail.
Ch. 4 is called A Sequent Calculus. The version chosen is really, really, not very nice. For a
start (albeit a minor point that only affects readability), instead of writing a sequent as $ ,
or , or even : , EFT just write an unpunctuated . Much more seriously, they
adopt a system of rules which many would say mixes up structural rules and classical logical
rules for the connectives in an unprincipled way (thereby losing just the insights that a sequent
system can be used to highlight). [To be more specific, they introduce a classical Proof by Cases
rule that takes us from the sequents (in their notation) and to , and then
appeal to Proof by Cases to get Cut as a derived rule. This really muddies the waters in various
ways!]
Ch. 5 gives a Henkin completeness proof for first-order logic. For my money, theres too much
symbol-bashing and not enough motivating chat here. (I dont think it is good exegetical policy

65

to complicate matters as EFT do by going straight for a proof for the predicate calculus with
identity: but they are not alone in this.)
Ch. 6 is briskly about The L
owenheim-Skolem Theorem, compactness, and elementarily
equivalent structures (but probably fine if youve met this stuff before).
Ch. 7, The Scope of First-Order Logic is really rather odd. It briskly argues that first-order
logic is the logic for mathematics (readers of Shapiros book on second-order logic wont be so
quickly convinced!). The reason given is that we can reconstruct (nearly?) all mathematics in
first-order ZF set theory which the authors then proceed to give the axioms for. These few
pages surely wouldnt help if you have never seen the axioms before and dont already know
about the project of doing-maths-inside-set-theory.
Finally in Part A, theres rather ill-written chapter on normal forms, on extending theories
by definitions, and (badly explained) on what the authors call syntactic interpretations.
Part B of the book discusses a number of rather scattered topics. It kicks off with a nice
little chapter on extensions of first-order logic, more specifically on second-order logic, on L1
[which allows infinitely long conjunctions and disjunctions], and LQ [logic with quantifier Qx,
there are uncountably many x such that . . . ].
Then Ch. 10 is on Limitations of the Formal Method, and in under forty pages aims to talk
about register machines, the halting problem for such machines, the undecidability of first-order
logic, Trahtenbrots theorem and the incompleteness of second-order logic, Godels incompleteness theorems, and more. This would just be far too rushed if youd not seen this material before,
and if you have then there are plenty of better sources for revising/consolidating/extending your
knowledge.
Ch. 11 is by some way the longest in the book, on Free Models and Logic Programming.
This is material we havent covered in this Guide. But again it doesnt strike me as a particular
attractive introduction (we will perhaps mention some better alternatives in a future section to
be added to Chapter 5).
Ch. 12 is back to core model theory, Frasses Theorem and Ehrenfeucht Games: but (Im
sorry this is getting repetitious!) youll again find better treatments elsewhere, this time in
books dedicated to model theory.
Finally, there is an interesting (though quite tough) concluding chapter on Lindstroms Theorems which show that there is a sense in which standard first-order logic occupies a unique place
among logical theories.

Summary verdict The core material in Part A of the book is covered better (more
accessibly, more elegantly) elsewhere.
Of the supplementary chapters in Part B, the two chapters that stand out as worth
looking at are perhaps Ch. 9 on extensions of first-order logic, and Ch. 13 (though not
easy) on Lindstr
oms Theorems.

A.8

Van Dalen, 1980, 2012

Dirk van Dalens popular Logic and Structure (Springer: 263 pp. in the most recent
edition) was first published in 1980, and has now gone through a number of editions. It is
widely used and has a lot to recommend it. A very substantial chapter on incompleteness
was added in the fourth edition in 2004. A fifth edition published in 2012 adds a further
new section on ultraproducts. Comments here apply to these last two editions.
Some details Ch. 1 on Propositional Logic gives a presentation of the usual truth-functional
semantics, and then a natural deduction system (initially with primitive connectives and K).
This is overall pretty clearly done though really rather oddly, although van Dalen uses in his
illustrative examples of deductions the usual practice of labelling a discharged premiss with numbers and using a matching label to mark the inference move at which that premiss is discharged,
he doesnt pause to explain the practice in the way you would expect. Van Dalen then gives a

66

standard Henkin proof of completeness for this cut-down system, before re-introducing the other
connectives into his natural deduction system in the last section of the chapter. Compared with
Chiswell and Hodges, this has a somewhat less friendly, more conventional, mathematical lookand-feel: but this is still an accessible treatment, and will certainly be very readily manageable
if youve read C&H first. (It should be noted that van Dalen can be surprisingly slapdash. For
example, a tautology is defined is defined to be an (object-language) proposition which is always
true. But then the meta-linguistic schema ^ ^ is said to be a tautology. He means the
instances are tautologies; compare Mendelson who really does think tautologies are schemata.
Again, van Dalen presents his natural deduction system, says he is going to give some concrete
cases, but then presents not arguments in the object language, but schematic templates for
arguments, written out using s and s again.)
Ch. 2 describes the syntax of a first-order language, gives a semantic story, and then presents
a natural deduction system, first adding quantifier rules, then adding identity rules. Overall, this
is pretty clearly done (though van Dalen reuses variables as parameters, which isnt the nicest
way of setting things up). The approach to the semantics is to consider an extension of a first
order language L with domain A to an augmented language LA which has a constant a for every
element a P A; and then we can say @xpxq is true if all paq are true. Fine: though it would
have been good if van Dalen had paused to say a little more about the pros and cons of doing
things this way rather than the more common Tarskian way that students will encounter. (Lets
complain some more about van Dalens slapdash ways. For example, he talks about the language
of a similarity type in 2.3, but gives examples of different languages of the same similarity type
in 2.7. He fusses unclearly about different uses of the identity sign in 2.3, before going on to
make use of the symbolism := in a way that isnt explained, and is different from the use made
of it in the previous chapter. This sort of thing could upset the more pernickety reader.)
Ch. 3, Completeness and Applications, gives a pretty clear presentation of a Henkin-style
completeness proof, and then the compactness and L-S theorems. The substantial third section
on model theory goes rather more speedily, and youll need some mathematical background to
follow some of the illustrative examples. The final section newly added in the fifth edition on the
ultraproduct construction speeds up again and is probably too quick to be useful to many.
Ch. 4 is quite short, on second-order logic. If you have already seen a presentation of the
basic ideas, this quick presentation of the formalities could be helpful.
Ch. 5 is on intuitionism this is a particular interest of van Dalens, and his account of
the BHK interpretation as motivating intuitionistic deduction rules, his initial exploration of the
resulting logic, and his discussion of the Kripke semantics are quite nicely done (though again,
this chapter will probably work better if you have already seen the main ideas in a more informal
presentation before).
Ch. 6 is on proof theory, and in particular on the idea that natural deduction proofs (both
classical and intutitionistic) can be normalized. Most readers will find a more expansive and
leisurely treatment much to be preferred.
The final 50 page Ch. 7 is more leisurely. It starts by introducing the ideas of primitive
recursive and partial recursive functions, and the idea of recursively enumerable sets, leading up
to a proof that there exist effectively inseparable r.e. sets. We then turn to formal arithmetic,
and prove that recursive functions are representable (because his version of PA does have the
exponential built in, van Dalen doesnt need to tangle with the -function trick.). Next we get
the arithmetization of syntax and proofs that the numerical counterparts of some key syntactic
properties and relations are primitive recursive. Then, as you would expect, we get the diagonalization lemma, and that is used to prove Godels first incompleteness theorem. We then get
another proof relying on the earlier result that there are effectively inseparable r.e. sets, and
going via the undecidability of arithmetic. The chapter finishes by announcing that there is a
finitely axiomatized arithmetic strong enough to represent all recursive properties/relations, so
the undecidability of arithmetic implies the undecidability of first-order logic. Theres nothing,
however, about the second theorem: so most students who get this far will want that bit more
more. However, this chapter is all done pretty clearly, could probably be managed by good students as a first introduction to its topics, and would be very good revision/consolidatory reading
for those whove already encountered this material.

Summary verdict

Revisiting this book, I find it a rather patchily uneven read. Although

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intended for beginners in mathematical logic, the level of difficulty of the discussions
rather varies, and the amount of more relaxed motivational commentary also varies.
As noted there are occasional lapses where van Dalens exposition isnt as tight as it
could be. So this is probably best treated as a book to be read after youve had a first
exposure to the material in the various chapters: but then it should prove pretty helpful
for consolidating/expanding your initial understanding and then pressing on a few steps.

A.9

Prestel and Delzell, 1986, 2011

Alexander Prestell and Charles N. Delzells Mathematical Logic and Model Theory: A
Brief Introduction (Springer, 1986; English version 2011: pp. 193) is advertised as offering
a streamlined yet easy-to-read introduction to mathematical logic and basic model theory. Easy-to-read, perhaps, for those with a fair amount of mathematical background
in algebra, for as the Preface makes clear the aim of the book is make available
to interested mathematicians the best known model theoretic results in algebra. The
last part of the book develops a complete proof of Ax and Kochens work on Artins
conjecture about Diophantine properties of p-adic number fields.
So this book is not really aimed at a likely reader of this Guide. Still, Ch. 1 is a crisp
and clean 60 page introduction to first-order logic, that could be used as brisk and helpful
revision material. And Ch. 2, Model constructions gives a nice if pacey introduction to
some basic model theoretic notions: again at least for readers of this Guide it could
serve well to consolidate and somewhat extend ideas if you have already encountered at
least some of this material before, based on the reading in our 3.2.
The remaining two chapters, Properties of Model Classes and Model Theory of
Several Algebraic Theories are tougher going, and belong with the more advanced reading in 5.4. But, for those who want to work through this material, it does strike me as
well presented.

A.10

Johnstone, 1987

Peter T. Johnstones Notes on Logic and Set Theory (CUP, 1987: pp. 111) is very short
in page length, but very big in ambition. There is an introductory chapter on universal
algebra, followed by chapters on propositional and first-order logic. Then there is a
chapter on recursive functions (showing that a function is register computable if and
only if computable, and that such functions are representable in PA). That is followed
by four chapters on set theory (introducing the axioms of ZF, ordinals, AC, and cardinal
arithmetic). And there is a final chapter Consistency and independence on Godelian
incompleteness and independence results in set theory.
This is a quite remarkably action-packed menu for such a short book. True, the
story is filled out a bit by the substantive exercises, but still surely this isnt the book
to use for a first encounter with these ideas (even though it started life as notes for
undergraduate lectures for the maths tripos). However, I would warmly recommend the
book for revision/consolidation: its very brevity means that the Big Ideas get highlighted
in a particularly uncluttered way, and particularly snappy proofs are given.

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A.11

Hodel, 1995

Richard E. Hodels An Introduction to Mathematical Logic* (PWS Publishing, 1995,

reprinted Dover Publications, 2013: pp. 491) was originally launched into the world by
a relatively obscure publisher, but has now been taken up and cheaply republished by
Dover. I hadnt heard of the book before a few people recommended it, commenting on
the lack of any mention in earlier versions of this Guide.
The book covers first-order logic and some recursion theory, with a less usual
though not unique feature being a full textbook treatment of Hilberts Tenth Problem
(the one about whether there is an algorithm which tells us when a polynomial equation
ppxq 0 has a solution in the integers).
So how does Hodel fare against his competitors? Overall, the book is pretty clearly
written, though it does have a somewhat old-fashioned feel to it (you wouldnt guess,
for example, that it was written some twenty years after George Boolos and Richard
Jeffreys Computability and Logic). And Hodel does give impressively generous sets of
exercises throughout the book including some getting the student to prove significant
results by guided stages. However, I cant really recommend his treatment of logic in the
first half of the book.
Some details Ch. 1 Background is an unusually wide-ranging introduction to ideas the budding
logician should get her head round early. We get a first informal pass at the notions of a formal
system and of an axiomatized system in particular, the idea of proof by induction, a few notions
about sets, functions and relations, the idea of countability, the ideas of an algorithmically
computable function and of effective decidability. We even get a first pass at the idea of a recursive
function (and a look at Churchs Thesis about how the informal idea of being computable relates
to the idea of recursiveness). This is very lucidly done, and can be recommended.
Ch. 2 is on The language and semantics of propositional logic and is again pretty clearly
done.
Ch. 3 turns to formal deductive systems for propositional logic. Unfortunately, Hodel chooses
to work primarily with Shoenfields system (the primitive connectives are and _, every instance
of A _ A is an axiom, and there are four rules of inference). I really cant see the attraction of
this system among all the competitors, or why it should be thought as especially appropriate as
a starting point for beginners. It neither has the naturalness of a natural deduction system, nor
the austere Bauhaus lines of one of the more usual Frege-Hilbert axiomatic systems. The chapter
does also consider other systems of propositional logic in the concluding two sections, but goes
too quickly to be very helpful. So this key chapter is not a success, it seems to me.
Ch. 4 on First-order languages, including Tarskian semantics, is again pretty clear (and
could be helpful to a beginner who is first encountering the ideas and is looking for reading to
augment another textbook). But as wed expect given whats gone before, when we turn to Ch. 5
on First-order logic we can a continuance of the discussion of a Shoenfield-style system (except
that Hodel takes @ rather than D as primitive). Which is, by my lights, much to be regretted.
The ensuing discussion of completeness, while perhaps a little laboured, is carefully structured
with a good amount of signposting. But there are better presentations of first-order logic overall.
Ch. 6 is called Mathematics and logic and touches on an assortment of topics about firstorder theories and their limitations (and a probably rather-too-hasty look at set theory as an
example).
The next two chapters form quite a nice unit. Ch. 7 discusses Incompleteness, undecidability and indefinability. Recursive functions are defined Shoenfield-style as those arising from a
certain class of initial functions by composition and regular minimization, which eases the proof
that all recursive functions are representable (though doesnt do much to make recursiveness
seem a natural idea to beginners). Then, by making the informal assumption that certain intuitively decidable relations are recursive, Hodel proves Godels incompleteness theorem, Churchs
Theorem and Tarskis Theorem. The next chapter fills in enough detail about recursive functions
and relations to show how to lift that informal assumption. This seems all pretty clearly done,
even if not a first-choice for real beginners.

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Then Ch. 9 extends the treatment of computability by showing that the functions computable
by an unlimited register machine are just the recursive ones: but, again this sort of thing is done
at least as well in other books.
Finally, Ch. 10 deals with Hilberts tenth problem (so the first five sections of Ch. 8 and then
this chapter form a nice, stand-alone treatment of the negative solution of Hilberts problem).

Summary verdict Beginners could all usefully read Hodels opening chapter, which is
better than usual in setting the scene, and supplying the student with a useful toolkit
of preliminary ideas. The presentation of first-order logic in Chs. 2-6 is based around an
unattractive formal system, and while the discussion of the usual meta-theoretic results
is pretty clear, it doesnt stand out from the good alternatives: so overall, I wouldnt
recommend this as your first encounter with serious logic.
Students, however, might find Chs. 7 and 8 provide a nice complement to other
discussions of G
odelian incompleteness and Church and Tarskis Theorems. While more
advanced students could revise their grip on basic definitions and results by (re)reading
8.18.5 and then enjoy tackling Ch. 10 on Hilberts Tenth Problem.

A.12

Goldstern and Judah, 1995

Half of Martin Goldstern and Haim Judahs The Incompleteness Phenomenon: A New
Course in Mathematical Logic (A.K. Peters, 1995: pp. 247) is a treatment of first-order
logic. The rest of the book is two long chapters (as it happens, of just the same length),
one on model theory, one mostly on incompleteness and with a little on recursive functions. So the emphasis on incompleteness in the title is somewhat misleading: the book
is at least equally an introduction to some model theory. I have had this book recommended to me more than once, but I seem to be immune to its supposed charms (I too
often dont particularly like the way that it handles the technicalities): your mileage may
vary.
Some details Ch. 1 starts by talking about inductive proofs in general, then gives a semantic
account of sentential and then first-order logic, then offers a Hilbert-style axiomatic proof system.
Very early on, the authors introduce the notion of M-terms and M-formulae. An M-term
(where M is model for a given first-order language L) is built up from L-constants, L-variables
and/or elements of the domain of M, using L-function-expressions; an M-formula is built up
from M-terms in the predictable way. Any half-awake student is initially going to balk at this.
Re-reading the set-theoretic definitions of expressions as tuples, she will then realize that the
apparently unholy mix of bits of language and bits of some mathematical domain in an M-term
is not actually incoherent. But she will right wonder what on earth is going on and why: our
authors dont pause to explain why we might want to do things like this at the very outset. (A
good student who knows other presentations of the basics of first-order semantics should be able
to work out after the event what is going on in the apparent trickery of Goldstern and Judahs
sort of story: but I really cant recommend starting like this, without a good and expansive
explanation of the point of the procedure.)
Ch. 2 gives a Henkin completeness proof for the first-order deductive system given in Ch. 1.
This has nothing special to recommend it, as far as I can see: there are many more helpful
expositions available. The final section of the chapter is on non-standard models of arithmetic:
Boolos and Jeffrey (Ch. 17 in their third edition) do this more approachably.
Ch.3 is on model theory. There are three main sections, Elementary substructures and
chains, ultra products and compactness, and Types and countable models. So this chapter
less than sixty pages aims quite high to be talking e.g. about ultraproducts and about
omitting types. You could indeed usefully read it after working through e.g. Manzanos book:
but I certainly dont think this chapter makes for an accessible and illuminating first introduction

70

to serious model theory.

Ch. 4 is on incompleteness, and the approach here is significantly more gentle than the
previous chapter. Goldstern and Judah make things rather easier for themselves by adopting
a version of Peano Arithmetic which has exponentiation built in (so they dont need to tangle
with G
odels function). And they only prove a semantic version of Godels first incompleteness
theorem, assuming the soundness of PA. The proof here goes as by showing directly that
via G
odel coding various syntactic properties and relations concerning PA are expressible in
the language of arithmetic with exponentiation (in other words, they dont argue that those
properties and relations are primitive recursive and then show that PA can express all such
properties/relations).
How well, how accessibly, is this done? The authors hack through eleven pages (pp. 207217)
of the arithmetization of syntax, but the motivational commentary is brisk and yet the proofs
arent completely done (the authors still leave to the reader the task of e.g. coming up with a
predicate satisfied by G
odel numbers for induction axioms). So this strikes the present reader
as really being neither one thing nor another neither a treatment with all the details nailed
down, nor a helpfully discursive treatment with a lot of explanatory arm-waving. And in the
end, the diagonalization trick seems to be just pulled like a rabbit out of the hat. After proving
incompleteness, they prove Tarksis theorem and the unaxiomatizability of the set of arithmetic
truths.
To repeat, the authors assume PAs soundness. They dont say anything about why we might
want to prove the syntactic version of the first theorem, and dont even mention the second
theorem which we prove by formalizing the syntactic version. So this could well leave students a
bit mystified when they come across other treatments.
The book ends by noting that the relevant predicates in the arithmetization of syntax are 1 ,
and then defines a set as being recursively enenumerable if it is expressible by a 1 predicates
(so now talk of recursiveness etc. does get into the picture). But really, if you want to go down
this route, this is surely all much better handled in Learys book.

Summary verdict The first two chapters of this book cant really be recommended
either for making a serious start on first-order logic or for revision. The third chapter
could be used for a brisk revision of some model theory if you have already done some
reading in this area. The final chapter about incompleteness (which the title of the book
might lead you to think will be a high point) isnt the most helpful introduction in this
style go for Leary (2000) instead and on the other hand doesnt go far enough for
revision/consolidatory purposes.

A.13

Leary, 2000

So how friendly is Christopher C. Learys A Friendly Introduction to Mathematical Logic

(Prentice Hall, 2000: pp. 218)? meaning, of course, friendly by the standard of logic
books!
I like the tone a great deal (without being the least patronizing, it is indeed relaxed and inviting), and the level of exposition seems to me to be mostly well-judged
for an introductory course (one semesters worth, in American terms). The book is officially aimed mostly at mathematics undergraduates without assuming any particular
background knowledge. But as Leary says in the Preface, it should also be accessible
to logic-minded philosophers who are happy to work at following rather abstract arguments (and, I would add, who are also happy to skip over just a few inessential elementary
mathematical illustrations).
What does the book cover? Just basic first-order logic (up to the L-S theorems) and
the incompleteness theorems. But by being so tightly focused, this short book rarely
seems to rush at what it does cover: the pace is pretty even.
71

If I have a general reservation about the book, it is that Leary opts for a Hilbertian
axiomatic system of logic, with fairly brisk explanations. If youve never seen before a
serious formal system for first-order logic this initially makes for quite a dense read: if on
the other hand you have been introduced to logic by trees or seen a natural deduction
presentation, you would welcome some paragraphs explaining the advantages for present
purposes of the choice of an axiomatic approach here.
Some details Ch. 1, Structures and languages, starts by talking of first-order languages (Leary
makes the good choice of not starting over again with propositional logic, but assumes students
know their truth-tables!), and then moves on to explaining the idea of first order structures, and
truth-in-a-structure. There is a good amount of motivational chat as Leary goes through, and
the exercises as elsewhere in the book seem particularly well-designed to aid understanding.
Ch. 2, Deductions, introduces an essentially Hilbertian logical system and proves its soundness: it also considers systems with additional non-logical axioms. The logical primitives are _,
, @ and . Logical axioms are just the identity axioms, an axiom-version of @-elimination
(and its dual, D-introduction): the inference rules @-introduction (and its dual) and a rule which
allows us to infer from a finite set of premisses if it is an instance of a tautological entailment.
I dont think this is the friendliest ever logical system (and no doubt for reasons of brevity, Leary
doesnt pause to consider alternative options); but it is not unusually horrible either. If you take
it slowly, the exposition here should be quite manageable.
Ch. 3, Completeness and compactness, gives a nice version of a Henkin-style completeness
theorem for the described deductive system, then proves compactness and the upward and downward L
owenheim-Skolem theorems (the latter in the version if L is a countable language and B
is an L-structure, then B has a countable elementary substructure [the proof might be found a
bit tricky though]). So there is a little model theory here as well as the completeness proof: and
you could well read this chapter without reading the previous ones if you are already reasonably
up to speed on structures, languages, and deductive systems.
In Ch. 4, IncompletenessGroundwork, Leary (re)introduces the theory he calls N , a version of Robinson Arithmetic with exponentiation built in. He then shows that (given a scheme of
G
odel coding) that the usual numerical properties and relations involved in the arithmetization
of syntax such as, ultimately, Prf pm, nq, i.e. m codes for an N -proof of the formula numbered
n can be represented in N .
He does this by the direct method. That is to say, instead of [like my IGT ] showing that those
properties/relations are (primitive) recursive, and that N can represent all (primitive) recursive
relations, Leary directly writes down 0 wffs which express and hence represent them. This is
inevitably gets more than a bit messy: but he has a very good stab at motivating every step
as he works up to showing that N can express Prf pm, nq by a 0 wff. If you want a full-dress
demonstration of this result, then this is one of the most user-friendly available.
Ch. 5, The Incompleteness Theorems, is the shortest in the book: but Leary has done all
the groundwork to enable him to now give a brisk but pretty clear presentation, at least after
he has proved the Diagonalization Lemma. A little unfortunately, the proof of that is rather too
rabbit-out-of-a-hat for my liking. But once the Lemma is in place, the rest of the chapter goes
very nicely and accessibly (we get the first incompleteness theorem in its semantic version, the
undecidability of arithmetic, Tarksis theorem, the syntactic version of incompleteness and then
Rossers improvement. Then there is nice section giving Booloss proof of incompleteness echoing
the Berry paradox. Finally, the second theorem is proved by assuming (though not proving) the
derivability conditions.

Summary verdict If you have already briefly met an axiomatically presented deductive
systems for first-order semantics, and an informal account of its semantics, then youll
find the opening two chapters of Learys book very manageable (if you havent theyll
be a bit more work). The treatment of completeness etc. in Ch. 3 would make for a nice
stand-alone treatment even if you dont read the first two chapters. Or you could just
start the book by reading 2.8 (where N is first mentioned), and then read the excellent
Chs 4 and 5 on incompleteness with a lot of profit.
72

A Friendly Introduction is indeed in many ways an unusually likeable introduction

to the material it covers, and has a lot to recommend it. (The book is currently out of
print but a revised edition is in preparation).

A.14

Forster, 2003

Thomas Forsters Logic, Induction and Sets (CUP, 2003: pp. x + 234) is rather quirky,
and some readers will enjoy it for just that reason. It is based on a wide-ranging lecture
course given to mathematicians who such being the oddities of the Cambridge tripos
syllabus at the beginning of the course already knew a good deal of maths but very
little logic. The book is very bumpily uneven in level, and often goes skips forward very
fast, so I certainly wouldnt recommend it as an entry level text on mathematical logic
for someone wanting a conventionally systematic approach. But it is often intriguing.
Some details Ch. 1 is called Definitions and notations but is rather more than that, and
includes some non-trivial exercises: but if you are dipping into later parts of the book, you can
probably just consult this opening chapter on a need-to-know basis.
Ch. 2 discusses Recursive datatypes, defined by specifying a starter-pack of founders and
some constructors, and then saying the datatype is what you can get from the founders by
applying and replying the constructors (and nothing else). The chapter considers a range of
examples, induction over recursive datatypes, well-foundedness, well-ordering and related matters
(with some interesting remarks about Horn clauses too).
Ch. 3 is on partially ordered sets, and we get a lightning tour through some topics of logical
relevance (such as the ideas of a filter and an ultrafilter).
Chs. 4 and 5 deal slightly idiosyncratically with propositional and predicate logic, and could
provide useful revision material (theres a slip about theories on p. 70, giving two non-equivalent
definitions).
Ch. 6 is on Computable functions and is another lightning tour, touching on quite a lot in
just over twenty pages (getting as far as Rices theorem). Again, could well be useful to read as
revision, especially if you want to highlight again the Big Ideas and their interrelations.
Ch. 7 is on Ordinals. Note that Forster gives us the elements of the theory of transfinite
ordinal numbers before turning to set theory in the next chapter. Its a modern doctrine that
ordinals just are sets, and that the basic theory of ordinals is part of set theory; and in organizing
his book as he does, Forster comes nearer than most to getting the correct conceptual order into
clear focus (though even he wobbles sometimes, e.g. at p. 182). However, the chapter could have
been done more clearly.
Ch. 8 is called Set Theory and is perhaps the quirkiest of them all though not because
Forster is here banging the drum for non-standard set theories (surprisingly given his interests,
he doesnt). But the chapter is oddly structured, so for example we get a quick discussion of
models of set theory and the absoluteness of 0 properties before we actually encounter the ZFC
axioms. The chapter is probably only for those, then, who already know the basics.
Ch. 9 comprises answers to some of the earlier exercises exercises are indeed scattered
through the book, and some of them are rather interesting.

Summary verdict Different from the usual run of textbooks, not a good choice for
beginners. However, if you already have encountered some of the material in one way or
the other, Forsters book could very well be worth looking through for revision and/or
to get some new perspectives.

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A.15

Hedman, 2004

Shawn Hedmans A First Course in Logic (OUP, 2004: pp. xx + 214) is subtitled An
Introduction to Model Theory, Proof Theory, Computability and Complexity. So theres
no lack of ambition in the coverage! And I do like the general tone and approach at the
outset. So I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the book in general. But, as we will
see, it is decidedly patchy both in terms of the level of the treatment of various topics,
and in terms of the quality of the exposition.
Some details After twenty pages of mostly rather nicely done Preliminaries including an
admirably clear couple of pages the P = NP problem, Ch. 1 is on Propositional Logic. On the
negative side, we could certainly quibble that Hedman is a bit murky about object-language vs
meta-language niceties. The treatment of induction half way through the chapter isnt as clear
as it could be. Much more importantly, the chapter offers a particularly ugly formal deductive
system. It is in fact a (single conclusion) sequent calculus, but with proofs constrained to be a
simple linear column of wffs. So heavens above! we are basically back to Lemmons Beginning
Logic (1965). Except that the rules are not as nice as Lemmons (thus Hedmans ^-elimination
rule only allows us to extract a left conjunct; so we need an additional ^-symmetry rule to get
from P ^ Q to Q). I cant begin to think what recommended this system to the author out of all
the possibilities on the market. On the positive side, theres quite a nice treatment of a resolution
calculus for wffs in CNF form, and a proof that this is sound and complete. This gives Hedman
a completeness proof for derivations in his original calculus with a finite number of premisses,
and he gives a compactness proof to beef this up to a proof of strong completeness.
Ch. 2, Structures and first-order logic should really be called Structures and first-order
languages, and deals with relations between structures (like embedding) and relations between
structures and languages (like being a model for a sentence). Im not sure I quite like its way
of conceiving of a structure as always some V-structure, i.e. as having an associated first-order
vocabulary V which it is the interpretation of so structures for Hedman are what some would
call labelled structures. But otherwise, this chapter is clearly done.
Ch. 3 is about deductive proof systems for first-order logic. The first deductive system offered
is an extension of the bastardized sequent calculus for propositional logic, and hence is equally
horrible. Somehow I sense that Hedman just isnt much interested in standard proof-systems for
logic. His heart is in the rest of the chapter, which moves towards topics of interest to computer
scientists, about Skolem normal form, the Herbrand method, unification and resolution, so-called
SLD-resolution, and Prolog interesting topics, but not on my menu of basics to be introduced
at this very early stage in a first serious logic course. The discussions seem quite well done,
and will be accessible to an enthusiast with an introductory background (e.g. from Chiswell and
Hodges) and who has read the section of resolution in the first chapter.
Ch. 4 is on Properties of first-order logic. The first section is a nice presentation of a Henkin
completeness proof (for countable languages). There is then a long aside on notions of infinite
cardinals and ordinals (Hedman has a policy of introducing background topics, like the idea of
an inductive proof, and now these set theoretic notions, only when needed: but it can break
the flow). 4.3 can use the assumed new knowledge about non-countable infinities to beef up
the completeness proof, give upwards and downwards LS theorems, etc., again done pretty well.
4.44.6 does some model theory under the rubrics Amalgamation of structures. Preservation
of formulas and Amalgamation of vocabularies: this already gets pretty abstract and uninviting,
with not enough motivating examples. 4.7 is better on The expressive power of first-order logic.
The next two chapters, First order theories and Models of countable theories, give a
surprisingly (Id say, unrealistically) high level treatment of some model theory, going well beyond
e.g. Manzanos book, eventually talking about saturated models, and even ending with A touch
of stability. This hardly chimes with the books prospectus as being a first course in logic. The
chapters, however, could be useful for someone who wants to push onwards, after a first encounter
with some model theory.
Ch. 6 comes sharply back to earth: an excellent chapter on Computability and complexity
back at a sensibly introductory level. It begins with a well done review of the standard material on
primitive recursive functions, recursive functions, computing machines, semi-decidable decision

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problems, undecidable decision problems. Which is followed by a particularly clear introduction

to ideas about computational complexity, leading up to the notion of NP-completeness. An
excellent chapter.
Sadly, the following Ch. 8 on the incompleteness theorems again isnt very satisfactory as a
first pass through this material. In fact, I doubt whether a beginning student would take away
from this chapter a really clear sense of what the key big ideas are, or of how to distinguish the
general results from the hack-work needed to show that they apply to this or that particular
theory. And things probably arent helped by proving the first theorem initially by Booloss
method rather than G
odels. Still, just because it gives an account of Booloss proof, this chapter
can be recommended as supplementary reading for those who have already seen some standard
treatments of incompleteness.
The last two chapters ratchet up the difficulty again. Ch. 9 goes Beyond first-order logic
by speeding through second-order logic, infinitary logics (particularly L1 ), fixed-point logics,
and Lindstr
oms theorem, all in twenty pages. This will probably go too fast for those who
havent encountered these ideas before. It should be noted that the particularly brisk account of
second-order logic gives a non-standard syntax and says nothing about Henkin vs full semantics.
The treatment of fixed-point logics (logics that are closed under inductive definitions) is short
on motivation and examples. But enthusiasts might appreciate the treatment of Lindstroms
theorem.
Finally, Ch. 10 is on finite model theory and descriptive complexity. Beginners doing a first
course in logic will again find this quite tough going.

Summary verdict A very uneven book in level, with sections that work well at an
introductory level and other sections which will only be happily managed by considerably
more advanced students. An uneven book in coverage too. By my lights, this couldnt
be used end-to-end as a course text: but in the body of the Guide, Ive recommended
parts of the book on particular topics.

A.16

Hinman, 2005

Now for a really big Big Book Peter G. Hinmans Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic
(A. K. Peters, 2005: pp. 878).
The author says the book was written over a period of twenty years, as he tried out
various approaches to enable students with varying levels of interest and ability to come
to a deep understanding of this beautiful subject. But I suspect that you will need to be
mathematically quite strong to really cope with this book: whatever Hinmans intentions
for a wider readership, this is not for the fainthearted.
The books daunting size is due to its very wide coverage rather than a slow pace
so after a long introduction to first-order logic (or more accurately, to its model theory)
and a discussion of the theory of recursive functions and incompleteness and related
results, there follows a very substantial survey of set theory, and then lengthy essays
on more advanced model theory and on recursion theory. As too often, proof theory is
the poor relation here indeed Hinman is very little interested in deductive systems for
logic, which dont make an appearance until over two hundred pages into the book.
Let me mention at the outset what strikes me as a pretty unfortunate global notational convention, which might puzzle casual browsers or readers who want to start
some way through the book, Given the two-way borrowing of notation between informal
mathematics and the formal languages in which logicians regiment that mathematics,
it is good to have some way of visually distinguishing the formal from the informal
(so we dont just rely on context). One common method is font selection. Thus, even
in an informal context, we may snappily say that addition commutes by writing e.g.

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@x@y x ` y y ` x; the counterpart wff for expressing this in a fully formalized language
may then be, e.g., @x@y x ` y y ` x. But instead of using sans serif or boldface for formal wffs, or another font selection, Hinman prefers using an (informal) mathematical
sign with a dot over it to represent a formal symbol in a formal language which denotes
9 y
9 for the formal wff. As you can
the informal object, so hed write @x@y x `
9 y `x
imagine, this convention eventually leads to really nasty rashes of dots for example, to
take a relatively tame example from p. 459, we get

9
9 : Dvrv P9 x ^ z P9 vsu
x
9 tz
(note how even opening braces in formal set-former notation get dotted). This dottiness
quite surely isnt a happy choice!
Some details Hinman himself in his Preface gives some useful pointers to routes through the
book, depending on your interests.
The Introduction gives a useful and approachable overview of some key notions tied up
with the mathematical logicians project of formalization (and talks about a version of Hilberts
program as setting the scene for some early investigations).
Ch. 1 is on Propositional Logic and other fundamentals. 1.1, 1.3 and 1.4 are devoted to
the language of propositional logic, and give the usual semantics, define the notion tautological
entailment and explore its properties, giving a proof of the compactness theorem. But note,
there is no discussion at all here or in the other sections of this chapter of a proof-system for
propositional logic.
1.2 is a rather general treatment of proofs by induction and the definition of functions by
recursion (signposted as skippable at this early stage and indeed the generality doesnt make for
a particularly easy read for a section so early in the book). 1.6 and 1.7 also cover more advanced
material, mainly introducing ideas for later use: the first briskly deals e.g. with ultrafilters and
ultraproducts (we get another take on compactness), and the second relates compactness to
topological ideas and also introduces the idea of a Boolean algebra.
Ch. 2, First-order logic, presents the syntax and semantics of first-order languages, and
then talks about first-order structures (isomorphisms, embeddings, extensions, etc), and proves
the downward L-S theorem. We then get a general discussion of theories (thought of as sets
of sentences closed under semantic consequence), and an extended treatment of some examples
(the theory of equality, the theory of dense linear orders, and various strengths of arithmetic).
Theres some quite sophisticated stuff here, including discussion of quantifier elimination. But
there is still no discussion yet of a proof-system for first-order logic, so the chapter could as well,
if not better, have been called Elements of model theory.
Ch. 3, Completeness and compactness, starts with a compactness proof for countable languages. Then we at last have a very brisk presentation of an old-school axiomatic system for
first-order logic (I told you that Hinman is not interested in proof-systems!), and a proof of completeness using the Henkin construction that has already been used in the compactness proof.
We next get inter alia an algebraic proof of compactness for first-order consequence via
ultraproducts, and a return to Boolean algebras and e.g. the Rasiowa-Sikorski theorem (3.3);
an extension of the compactness and completeness results to uncountable languages (3.4); and
some heavy-duty applications of compactness (3.5).
Finally in this action-packed chapter, we have some rather unfriendly treatments of higherorder logic (3.6) and infinitary logic (3.7).
Lets pause for breath. We are now a bit over 300 pages into the book. Things have already got pretty tough. The book is not quite a relentless march along a chain of definitions/theorems/corollaries; there are just enough pauses for illustrations and helpful remarks
en route to make it a bearable. But Hinman does have a taste for going straight for abstractly
general formulations (and his notational choices can sometimes be unhappy too). So as indicated
in my preamble, the book will probably only appeal to mathematicians already used to this sort
of fairly hardcore approach. In sum, therefore, Id only recommend the first part of the book to
the mathematically minded who already know their first-order logic and a bit of model theory;
but such readers might then find it quite helpful as a beginning/mid-level model theory resource.

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On we go. Next we have two chapters (almost 150 pages between them) on recursive functions,
G
odelian incompleteness, and related matters. Perhaps it is because these topics are conceptually
easier, more concrete, than whats gone before, or perhaps it is because the topics are closer
to Hinmans heart, but these chapters seem to me to work better as an introduction to their
topics. In particular, while not my favourite treatment, Ch. 4 is clear, very sensibly structured,
and should be accessible to anyone with some background in logic and who isnt put off by a
certain amount of mathematical abstraction. The chapter opens with informal proofs of the undecidability of consistent extensions of Q, the first incompleteness theorem and Tarskis theorem
on the undefinability of truth (as well as taking a first look at the second incompleteness theorem). These informal proofs depend on the hypothesis that effectively calculable functions are
expressible or the hypothesis that such functions are representable (we dont yet have a formal
story about these functions). Unsurprisingly, given I do something in the same ball-park in my
G
odel book, I too think this is a good way to start and to motivate the ensuing development.
There follows, as youd expect, the necessary account of the effectively calculable in terms of
recursiveness, and then we get proofs that recursive functions can be expressed/represented in
arithmetic, leading on to formal versions of the theorems about undecidable and incompleteness.
This presentation takes a different-enough path through the usual ideas to be worth reading even
if youve already encountered the material a couple of times before.
Ch. 5 is called Topics in definability and, unlike the previous rather tightly organised chapter, is something of a grab-bag of topics. 5.1 says something about the arithmetical hierarchy;
5.2 discusses inter alia the indexing of recursive functions and the halting problem; 5.3 explains
how the second incompleteness theorem is proved, and while not attempting a full proof there
is rather more detail than usual about how you can show that the HBL derivability conditions
are satisfied in PA. Then 5.4 gives more evidence for Churchs Thesis by considering a couple of
other characterisations of computability (by equation manipulation and by abstract machines)
and explains why they again pick out the recursive functions. 5.5 discusses Applications to
other languages and theories (e.g. the application of incompleteness to a theory like ZF which
is not initially about arithmetic). These various sections are all relatively clearly done.
Pausing for breath again, we might now try to tackle Ch. 6 on set theory (whose 200 pages
amount by themselves to an almost-stand-alone book). The menu covers the basics of ZF, the
way we can construct mathematics inside set theory, ordinals and cardinals, then models and
independence proofs, the constructible universe, models and forcing, large cardinals and determinacy. But even from the outset, this does seem quite relentlessly hard going, too short on
motivation and illustrations of concepts and constructions. Dense, to say the least. The author
says of the chapter that his particular mode of presentation means that for each of the instances
where one wants to verify that something is a class model the intuitive universe of sets V, the
constructible universe L and a forcing extension mrGs . . . the proofs . . . exhibit more of the
underlying unity. So enthusiasts who know their set theory might want to do a fast read of the
chapter to see if they can glean new insights. But I cant recommend this as a way into set theory
when compared with the standard set theory texts mentioned in 3.4 and 5.8.1 of this Guide.
Ch. 7 returns to more advanced model theory for another 80 pages, getting as far Morleys
theorem. Again, if you want a more accessible initial treatment, youll go for Hodgess Shorter
Model Theory. And then why not tackle Markers book if you are a graduate mathematician?
Finally, theres another equally long chapter on recursion theory. The opening sections on
degrees and Turing reducibility are pretty approachable. The rest of the chapter gets more
challenging but (at least compared with the material on model theory and set theory) should
still be tolerably accessible to those willing to put in the work.

Summary verdict It is very ambitious to write a book with this range and depth of coverage (as it were, an expanded version of Shoenfield, forty years on but now when there
is already a wealth of textbooks on the various areas covered, at various levels of sophistication). After such a considerable labour from a good logician, it seems very churlish
to say it, but the treatments of, respectively, (i) first-order logic, (ii) model theory, (iii)
computability theory and incompleteness, and (iv) set theory arent as good as the best
of the familiar stand-alone textbooks on the four areas. And I cant see that these shortcomings are balanced by any conspicuous advantage in having the accounts in a single
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text, rather than a handful of different ones. Still, the text should be in any university
library, as enthusiasts might well find parts of it quite useful supplementary/reference
material. Chapters 4, 5 and 8 on computability and recursion work the best.

A.17

Chiswell and Hodges, 2007

Ian Chiswell and Wilfrid Hodgess Mathematical Logic (OUP, 2007: pp. 249) is very
largely focused on first-order logic, only touching on Churchs undecidability theorem
and Godels first incompleteness theorem in a Postlude after the main chapters. So it
is perhaps stretching a point to include it in a list of texts which cover more than one
core area of the mathematical logic curriculum. Still, I wanted to comment on this book
at some length, without breaking the flow of 2.2 (where it is warmly recommended in
headline terms), and this is the obvious place to do so.
Let me highlight three key features of the book, the first one not particularly unusual (though it still marks out this text from quite a few of the older, and not so old,
competitors), the second very unusual but extremely welcome, the third a beautifully
neat touch:
1. Chiswell and Hodges (henceforth C&H) present natural deduction proof systems
and spend quite a bit of time showing how such formal systems reflect the natural
informal reasoning of mathematicians in particular.
2. Instead of dividing the treatment of logic into two stages, propositional logic and
quantificational logic, C&H take things in three stages. First, propositional logic.
Then we get the quantifier-free part of first-order logic, dealing with properties
and relations, functions, and identity. So at this second stage we get the idea of an
interpretation, of truth-in-a-structure, and we get added natural deduction rules
for identity and the handling of the substitution of terms. At both these first two
stages we get a Hintikka-style completeness proof for the given natural deduction
rules. Only at the third stage do quantifiers get added to the logic and satisfactionby-a-sequence to the semantic apparatus. Dividing the treatment of first order logic
into stages like this means that a lot of key notions get first introduced in the less
cluttered contexts of propositional and/or quantifier-free logic, and the novelties
at the third stage are easier to keep under control. This does make for a great gain
in accessibility.
3. The really cute touch is to introduce the idea of polynomials and diophantine
equations early in fact, while discussing quantifier-free arithmetic and to state
(without proof!) Matiyasevichs Theorem. Then, in the Postlude, this can be appealed to for quick proofs of Churchs Theorem and Godels Theorem.
This is all done with elegance and a light touch not to mention photos of major logicians
and some nice asides making an admirably attractive introduction to the material.
Some details C&H start with almost 100 pages on the propositional calculus. Rather too much
of a good thing? Perhaps, if you have already done a logic course at the level of my intro book
or Paul Tellers. Still, you can easily skim and skip. After Ch. 2 which talks about informal
natural deductions in mathematical reasoning, Ch. 3 covers propositional logic, giving a natural
deduction system (with some mathematical bells and whistles along the way, being careful about
trees, proving unique parsing, etc.). The presentation of the formal natural deduction system
is not exactly my favourite in its way representing discharge of assumptions (I fear that some

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readers might be puzzled about vacuous discharge and balk at Ex. 2.4.4 at the top of p. 19):
but apart from this little glitch, this is done well. The ensuing completeness proof is done by
Hintikkas method rather than Henkins.
After a short interlude, Ch. 5 treats quantifier-free logic. The treatment of the semantics
without quantifiers in the mix to cause trouble is very nice and natural; likewise at the syntactic
level, treatment of substitution goes nicely in this simple context. Again we get a soundness and
Hintikka-style completeness proof for an appropriate natural deduction system.
Then, after another interlude, Ch 7 covers full first-order logic with identity. Adding natural
deduction rules (on the syntactic side) and a treatment of satisfaction-by-finite-n-tuples (on the
semantic side) all now comes very smoothly after the preparatory work in Ch. 5. The Hintikkastyle completeness proof for the new logic builds very nicely on the two earlier such proofs: this
is about as accessible as it gets in the literature, I think. The chapter ends with a look at the
L
owenheim-Skolem theorems and Things that first-order logic cannot do.
Finally, as explained earlier, material about diophantine equations introduced naturally by
way of examples in earlier chapters is used in a final Postlude to give us undecidability and
incompleteness results very quickly (albeit assuming Matiyasevichs Theorem).

Summary verdict C&H have written a very admirably readable and nicely structured
introductory treatment of first-order logic that can be warmly recommended. The presentation of the syntax of their type of (Gentzen-Prawitz) natural deduction system is
perhaps done a trifle better elsewhere (Tennants freely available Natural Logic mentioned in 2.3 gives a full dress version). But the core key sections on soundness and
completeness proofs and associated metalogical results are second to none for their clarity and accessibility.

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