Related papers: Tracing Internal Categoricity
`Categorification' is the process of replacing equations by isomorphisms. We describe some of the ways a thoroughgoing emphasis on categorification can simplify and unify mathematics. We begin with elementary arithmetic, where the category…
Starting from a generalization of the standard axioms for a monoid we present a stepwise development of various, mutually equivalent foundational axiom systems for category theory. Our axiom sets have been formalized in the Isabelle/HOL…
Inspired by Zermelo's quasi-categoricity result characterizing the models of second-order Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory $\text{ZFC}_2$, we investigate when those models are fully categorical, characterized by the addition to $\text{ZFC}_2$…
The term ``Boolean category'' should be used for describing an object that is to categories what a Boolean algebra is to posets. More specifically, a Boolean category should provide the abstract algebraic structure underlying the proofs in…
Despite recent advances in automating theorem proving in full first-order theories, inductive reasoning still poses a serious challenge to state-of-the-art theorem provers. The reason for that is that in first-order logic induction requires…
The paper offers an argument against an intuitive reading of the Stone-von Neumann theorem as a categoricity result, thereby pointing out that, against what is usually taken to be the case, this theorem does not entail any model-theoretical…
This paper presents a theory of systemic undecidability, reframing incomputability as a structural property of systems rather than a localized feature of specific functions or problems. We define a notion of causal embedding and prove a…
Skolemization, with Herbrand's theorem, underpins automated theorem proving and various transformations in computer science and mathematics. Skolemization removes strong quantifiers by introducing new function symbols, enabling efficient…
There exists a dispute in philosophy, going back at least to Leibniz, whether is it possible to view the world as a network of relations and relations between relations with the role of objects, between which these relations hold, entirely…
The notion of pseudocategory, as considered in [11], is extended from the context of a 2-category to the more general one of a sesquicategory, which is considered as a category equipped with a 2-cell structure. Some particular examples of…
The classifying topos of a geometric theory is a topos such that geometric morphisms into it correspond to models of that theory. We study classifying toposes for different infinitary logics: first-order, sub-first-order (i.e. geometric…
After highlighting the cases in which the semantics of a language cannot be mechanically reproduced (in which case it is called inherent), the main epistemological consequences of the first incompleteness Theorem for the two fundamental…
Suppose L is a relational language and P in L is a unary predicate. If M is an L-structure then P(M) is the L-structure formed as the substructure of M with domain {a: M models P(a)}. Now suppose T is a complete first order theory in L with…
Quasi-set theory is a first order theory without identity, which allows us to cope with non-individuals in a sense. A weaker equivalence relation called ``indistinguishability'' is an extension of identity in the sense that if $x$ is…
This paper proposes an alternative to standard first-order logic that seeks greater naturalness, generality, and semantic self-containment. The system removes the first-order restriction, avoids type hierarchies, and dispenses with external…
This paper discusses the formalization of proofs "by diagram chasing", a standard technique for proving properties in abelian categories. We discuss how the essence of diagram chases can be captured by a simple many-sorted first-order…
Category theory is the language of homological algebra, allowing us to state broadly applicable theorems and results without needing to specify the details for every instance of analogous objects. However, authors often stray from the realm…
We combine several folklore observations to provide a working framework for iterating constructions which contradict the axiom of choice. We use this to define a model in which any kind of structural failure must fail with a proper class of…
The categoricity spectrum of a class of structures is the collection of cardinals in which the class has a single model up to isomorphism. Assuming that cardinal exponentiation is injective (a weakening of the generalized continuum…
We introduce the notion of limiting theories, giving examples and providing a sufficient condition under which the first order theory of a structure is the limit of the first order theories of a collection of substructures. We also give a…