Can We Make the Second Incompleteness Theorem Coordinate Free?
Albert Visser · Journal of Logic and Computation · 2009
Is it possible to give a coordinate-free formulation of the Second Incompleteness Theorem? We pursue one possible approach to this question. We show that (i) cutfree consistency for finitely axiomatized theories can be uniquely characterized modulo EA-provable equivalence and (ii) consistency for finitely axiomatized sequential theories can be uniquely characterized modulo EA-provable equivalence. The case of infinitely axiomatized RE theories is more delicate. We carefully discuss this in the article.