English

Varieties of truth definitions

Logic 2023-11-23 v1

Abstract

We study the structure of the partial order induced by the definability relation on definitions of truth for the language of arithmetic. Formally, a definition of truth is any sentence α\alpha which extends a weak arithmetical theory (which we take to be EA) such that for some formula Θ\Theta and any arithmetical sentence φ\varphi, Θ(φ)φ\Theta(\ulcorner\varphi\urcorner)\equiv \varphi is provable in α\alpha. We say that a sentence β\beta is definable in a sentence α\alpha, if there exists an unrelativized translation from the language of β\beta to the language of α\alpha which is identity on the arithmetical symbols and such that the translation of β\beta is provable in α\alpha. Our main result is that the structure consisting of truth definitions which are conservative over the basic arithmetical theory forms a countable universal distributive lattice. Additionally, we generalize the result of Pakhomov and Visser showing that the set of (G\"odel codes of) definitions of truth is not Σ2\Sigma_2-definable in the standard model of arithmetic. We conclude by remarking that no Σ2\Sigma_2-sentence, satisfying certain further natural conditions, can be a definition of truth for the language of arithmetic.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.13519,
  title  = {Varieties of truth definitions},
  author = {Piotr Gruza and Mateusz Łełyk},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.13519},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:28:46.517Z