Proof Theory

Download or read book Proof Theory written by Wolfram Pohlers and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1989 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although this is an introductory text on proof theory, most of its contents is not found in a unified form elsewhere in the literature, except at a very advanced level. The heart of the book is the ordinal analysis of axiom systems, with particular emphasis on that of the impredicative theory of elementary inductive definitions on the natural numbers. The "constructive" consequences of ordinal analysis are sketched out in the epilogue. The book provides a self-contained treatment assuming no prior knowledge of proof theory and almost none of logic. The author has, moreover, endeavoured not to use the "cabal language" of proof theory, but only a language familiar to most readers.