The Birth of Model Theory: Löwenheim's Theorem in the Frame of the Theory of Relatives

L wenheim's theorem reflects a critical point in the history of mathematical logic, for it marks the birth of model theory--that is, the part of logic that concerns the relationship between formal theories and their models. However, while the original proofs of other, comparably significant theorems are well understood, this is not the case with L wenheim's theorem. For example, the very result that scholars attribute to L wenheim today is not the one that Skolem--a logician raised in the algebraic tradition, like L wenheim--appears to have attributed to him. In The Birth of Model Theory, Calixto Badesa provides both the first sustained, book-length analysis of L wenheim's proof and a detailed description of the theoretical framework--and, in particular, of the algebraic tradition--that made the theorem possible.

Badesa's three main conclusions amount to a completely new interpretation of the proof, one that sharply contradicts the core of modern scholarship on the topic. First, L wenheim did not use an infinitary language to prove his theorem; second, the functional interpretation of L wenheim's normal form is anachronistic, and inappropriate for reconstructing the proof; and third, L wenheim did not aim to prove the theorem's weakest version but the stronger version Skolem attributed to him. This book will be of considerable interest to historians of logic, logicians, philosophers of logic, and philosophers of mathematics.

Author: Calixto Badesa
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 01/25/2004
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.70h x 6.24w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780691058535

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2004 pg. 141

About the Author
Calixto Badesa is Associate Professor of Logic and History of Logic at the University of Barcelona.