Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-model-theory-and-godel-s-incompleteness-theorems-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/a/3/c/solution

Take a first-order sentence refutable in and suppose, toward contradiction, that a first-order consistent proved . Propositional logic would then give
Löb's inference, applied with , would give , contradicting the existing formal proof of . Hence first-order consistency excludes the proposed formal proof of non-provability.
Thus the familiar unprovability of the first-order consistency statement associated with a refutable first-order sentence is a special consequence of the general rule
The general rule applies to every first-order sentence, not just a chosen false or refutable one.

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