(Fake proof) How are axiom schemas not “set theory in sheep’s clothing”

fake-proofsfirst-order-logiclogicpredicate-logic

This is very much not rigorous, so more of a "fake proof outline" than a "fake proof", but anyway hopefully someone would make explicit the (most important) error in the following line of reasoning:

  • An infinite axiom schema in FOL is semantically equivalent to an infinitary conjunction.
  • The semantics of infinitary logic requires set theory to specify.
  • Ergo infinite axiom schemas are "set theory in sheep's clothing".

Guesses: Is the problem that the above fails to distinguish between arbitrary infinite FOL axiom schemas, and recursively axiomatizable (albeit still infinite) FOL axiom schemas?

Are the semantics of recusively axiomatizable FOL axiom schemas somehow special enough to not require set theory, unlike the semantics of arbitrary infinite collections/"sets" of FOL axioms? Is Craig's theorem relevant?

Maybe the relevant collection of sentences (at least if recursively axiomatizable) can be expressed as a single sentence in $\mathcal{L}_{\omega_1 \omega}$, which is apparently complete (albeit not compact), so there are no semantic dependency issues vis a vis set theory?

Related questions (expressing the idea that infinitary logic is sometimes even more expressive than 2nd order logic):
Is there a specific infinitary sentence second-order logic can't capture?
Is infinitary first-order logic strictly more expressive than weak second-order logic?

Best Answer

Any FOL theory with computably enumerable axiom schemas is essentially equivalent (i.e. is bi-interpretable) with another FOL theory with finitely many axioms. You simply encode the (finitely many) rules that underlie the schemas. In some cases, such as finite axiomatization of NBG or ACA0, you can even do this with not much encoding. These clearly demonstrate that the infiniteness of an axiomatization is not at all set-theoretic in itself. Also, second-order logic is way over-hyped if you are concerned about foundations. Second-order theories are important when studying mathematical structures, but not really relevant to true foundations of mathematics.