English

Abstraction Principles and the Classification of Second-Order Equivalence Relations

Logic 2019-09-18 v1

Abstract

This paper improves two existing theorems of interest to neo-logicist philosophers of mathematics. The first is a classification theorem due to Fine for equivalence relations between concepts definable in a well-behaved second-order logic. The improved theorem states that if an equivalence relation EE is defined without non-logical vocabulary, then the bicardinal slice of any equivalence class---those equinumerous elements of the equivalence class with equinumerous complements---can have one of only three profiles. The improvements to Fine's theorem allow for an analysis of the well-behaved models had by an abstraction principle, and this in turn leads to an improvement of Walsh and Ebels-Duggan's relative categoricity theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.02472,
  title  = {Abstraction Principles and the Classification of Second-Order Equivalence Relations},
  author = {Sean C. Ebels-Duggan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.02472},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:44:38.915Z