Event Detail

Sat Feb 12, 2011
60 Evans Hall
12:10–2 AM
Logic Colloquium
Grigori Mints (Professor of Philosophy and of Mathematics, Stanford University)
Extension of Epsilon Substitution to Second-Order Systems

The problem of extending the epsilon substitution method to second-order systems was posed by Hilbert in 1928 and repeated in “Grundlagen der Mathematik” (1939). In this talk I will describe the first-order formulation (due to Hilbert, Ackermann, von Neumann, and Bernays) and outline possible extensions to the second order, progress achieved up to now, and obstacles to a termination proof.