Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ii/paper-2/16g/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 2 16G i Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
One Hilbert axiomatization of classical propositional logic uses the schemas , and , with modus ponens as its inference rule. Other connectives can be defined from implication and negation. Syntactic entailment means that a finite formal proof derives from the schemas and members of . Consistency means that no formula and its negation are both derivable, equivalently no contradiction is derivable.
Use the standard deduction theorem, closure of derivability under modus ponens, and the maximal-consistency properties: a maximal consistent set contains exactly one of , is closed under derivability, and satisfies exactly when or . These follow from the deduction theorem and the classical schemas; in particular adjoining a missing formula to a maximal set must yield a contradiction. Define iff . Induction on formula construction now provesFor negation use the exactly-one property, and for implication use its displayed membership rule, which is precisely the Boolean truth table. Thus every member of is true under , providing the required valuation.
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