Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-logic-and-set-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2007/a/4/ii/solution
Past exam of the logic and set theory course of the University of Oxford 2007 A 4 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The compactness theorem says that a set of first-order sentences has a first-order model if and only if every finite subset of has a first-order model. One direction follows by using the same first-order model for each subset.
For the nontrivial direction suppose every finite subset has a first-order model, but has none. Semantically , so completeness gives a formal logical derivation . A formal logical derivation is finite and uses only finitely many assumptions, say . Thus . Soundness would make unsatisfiable, contradicting the hypothesis. Here can be any fixed contradictory first-order sentence, such as , if it is not a primitive logical symbol. Therefore finite satisfiability implies satisfiability.
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