The crude incompleteness theorem says that every consistent recursively axiomatized extension of is incomplete.
Suppose instead that were complete. Enumerating proofs until either or appears would decide theoremhood, so its characteristic function would be total recursive. By the assumed representation theorem, choose a formula such that proves when and proves when . The diagonal lemma supplies with
If , then , so and is inconsistent. If , then the characteristic value is zero, so and hence , again a contradiction. Completeness must therefore fail.
Robinson arithmetic Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-11-05
Robinson arithmetic is a finitely axiomatized first-order theory in the language . Its seven axioms are the universal closures of
They describe successor, addition and multiplication without an induction schema. Each calculation on particular standard numerals can still be verified: repeated use of the recursion equations proves, for example, . This finite computational strength is enough for representing computable finite calculations and for the diagonal lemma used in crude incompleteness theorem. Peano arithmetic adds induction for arbitrary arithmetic formulas.[ref]