The Unprovability of Consistency: An Essay in Modal Logic

Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Ex-Library. Hardcover. Good+/None. Tidy black cloth boards with silver titling on spine. Cornell University Library blindstamp on title page. Smudged back number stamp to front pastedown. Small scars to front pastedown and ffep where stickers removed. Interior otherwise unmarked. Binding is nice and tight. 8vo. BOOK INFO: The Unprovability of Consistency is concerned with connections between two branches of logic: proof theory and modal logic. Modal logic is the study of the principles that govern the concepts of necessity and possibility; proof theory is, in part, the study of those that govern provability and consistency. In this book, Boolos looks at the principles of provability from the standpoint of modal logic. In doing so, he provides two perspectives on a debate in modal logic that has persisted for at least thirty years between the followers of C. I. Lewis and W. V. O. Quine. The author employs semantic methods developed by Saul Kripke in his analysis of modal logical systems. The book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in logic, mathematics and philosophy, as well as to specialists in those fields. (-from the publisher). Includes index