From: zuhair on
Suppose we have a set theory T, which cannot define
the notion of "natural number", would that make T
escape the incompleteness theorems of Godel's.

Zuhair
From: MoeBlee on
On Mar 30, 12:01 pm, zuhair <zaljo...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Suppose we have a set theory T, which cannot define
> the notion of "natural number", would that make T
> escape the incompleteness theorems of Godel's.

It's not a matter of defining 'natural number'. Rather, it's a matter
of being able to do a certain amount of arithmetic in the theory. We
don't have to define 'natural number' just to do arithmetic. First
order PA doesn't define, in the theory, 'natural number', but first
order PA is rich enough to do enough arithmetic so that it is
incomplete.

So the fact that a theory doesn't define 'natural number' doesn't in
itself entail that the theory is complete.

MoeBlee

From: zuhair on
On Mar 30, 12:16 pm, MoeBlee <jazzm...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 30, 12:01 pm, zuhair <zaljo...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Suppose we have a set theory T, which cannot define
> > the notion of "natural number", would that make T
> > escape the incompleteness theorems of Godel's.
>
> It's not a matter of defining 'natural number'. Rather, it's a matter
> of being able to do a certain amount of arithmetic in the theory. We
> don't have to define 'natural number' just to do arithmetic. First
> order PA doesn't define, in the theory, 'natural number', but first
> order PA is rich enough to do enough arithmetic so that it is
> incomplete.
>
> So the fact that a theory doesn't define 'natural number' doesn't in
> itself entail that the theory is complete.
>
> MoeBlee

What is exactly meant by "enough" arithmetic? is there a definition of
that
"enough"?

Zuhair
From: Daryl McCullough on
zuhair says...
>
>Suppose we have a set theory T, which cannot define
>the notion of "natural number", would that make T
>escape the incompleteness theorems of Godel's.

If T does not have a notion of natural number, then it is possible for T to be
complete. For example, the theory of real closed fields is decidable and
complete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_closed_field#Decidability_and_quantifier_elimination

--
Daryl McCullough
Ithaca, NY

From: Frederick Williams on
Daryl McCullough wrote:
>
> zuhair says...
> >
> >Suppose we have a set theory T, which cannot define
> >the notion of "natural number", would that make T
> >escape the incompleteness theorems of Godel's.
>
> If T does not have a notion of natural number, then it is possible for T to be
> complete. For example, the theory of real closed fields is decidable and
> complete.

What do you mean by having a notion of natural number? In any field one
has

0, 1, 1 + 1, 1 + 1 + 1, ... .
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_closed_field#Decidability_and_quantifier_elimination

--
I can't go on, I'll go on.