Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / iii / Paper 121 / 1 / iv / a / Solution

Let $N$ be a well-founded model of set theory of the complete theory $T$, and suppose that a Paris model $M\models T$ were ill-founded. Its internal ordinals would then contain an external descending sequenceFor every $n$, choose a first-order formula ${\phi }_n$ that uniquely defines ${\alpha }_n$ in $M$. The sentences asserting that ${\phi }_n$ uniquely defines an ordinal and that the object defined by ${\phi }_{n+1}$ belongs to the object defined by ${\phi }_n$ are true in $M$. Since $T$ is complete, all its models satisfy the same first-order sentences, so the corresponding uniquely defined ordinals in $N$ form an external descending membership sequence. This contradicts the well-foundedness of $N$. Thus Paris models are well-founded when their complete theory has a well-founded model proves that every Paris model of $T$ is well-founded.