This junior/senior level text starts with a thorough treatment of first-order logic and its role in the foundations of mathematics. It covers several advanced topics, not commonly treated in introductory texts, such as Trachtenbrot's undecidability theorem, Fraïssé's characterization of elementary equivalence, Lindström's theorem on the maximality of first-order logic, and the fundamentals of logic programming.

Klappentext

This introduction to first-order logic clearly works out the role of first-order logic in the foundations of mathematics, particularly the two basic questions of the range of the axiomatic method and of theorem-proving by machines. It covers several advanced topics not commonly treated in introductory texts, such as Fraïssé's characterization of elementary equivalence, Lindström's theorem on the maximality of first-order logic, and the fundamentals of logic programming.

Inhalt

Preface; Part A: 1. Introduction; 2. Syntax of First-Order Languages; 3. Semantics of first-Order Languages; 4. A Sequent Calculus; 5. The Completeness Theorem; 6. The Lowenheim-Skolem and the Compactness Theorem; 7. The Scope of First-Order Logic; 8. Syntactic Interpretations and Normal Forms; Part B: 9. Extensions of First-Order Logic; 10. Limitations of the Formal Method; 11. Free Models and Logic Programming; 12. An Algebraic Characterization of Elementary Equivalence; 13. Lindstroem's Theorems; References; Symbol Index; Subject Index