Proof of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem

https://arbital.com/p/59h

by Jaime Sevilla Molina Jul 10 2016 updated Oct 11 2016


Weak form

The weak Gödel's first incompleteness theorem states that every [ -consistent] [ axiomatizable] extension of minimal arithmetic is incomplete.

Let extend [-minimal_arithmetic], and let be the standard provability predicate of .

Then we apply the diagonal lemma to get such that .

We assert that the sentence is undecidable in . We prove it by contradiction:

Suppose that . Then is correct, and as it is a -rudimentary sentence then it is [every_true_e_rudimentary_sentence_is_provable_in_minimal_arithmetic provable in minimal arithmetic], and thus in . So we have that and also by the construction of that , contradicting that is consistent.

Now, suppose that . Then . But then as is consistent there cannot be a standard proof of , so if is of the form then for no natural number it can be that , so is -inconsistent, in contradiction with the hypothesis.

Strong form

Every consistent and [-axiomatizable] extension of [-minimal_arithmetic] is [complete incomplete].

This theorem follows as a consequence of the [ undecidability of arithmetic] combined with the lemma stating that [ any complete axiomatizable theory is undecidable]