[Math] Is consistency an axiom of mathematics

axiomsfoundationsincompletenessset-theory

I watched the numberphile video on Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem today, and I was wondering about something.

It seems the key to accepting the truth of Gödel's Theorem is to demand that mathematics is consistent. However, isn't this like invoking consistency as an axiom of mathematics? Therefore, aren't we proving the truth of Gödel's Theorem using the axioms? Is the consistency of mathematics something other than an axiom?

I've read elsewhere on here that another way to state Gödel's theorem is to say that no formal mathematics system can prove it's own consistency. Does that mean we just have to assume our system of mathematics is consistent?

Definitely not an expert in this!

Best Answer

Yes. That is exactly what it means. Consistency assumptions are axioms.

This gives rise to a natural hierarchy of axioms, specifically part of set theory, called large cardinal axioms which are stronger and stronger in consistency strength, and generally each one implies the weaker are consistent (and much more).

For example, the standard set theory, ZFC (Zermelo–Fraenkel with Choice) does not prove its own consistency strength, but we can add an axiom stating that it is in fact consistent. To that you can add an axiom that it is not only that ZFC is consistent, but "ZFC+ZFC is consistent" is also consistent. This can go on for a while.

But you can also just say that there are inaccessible cardinals, whatever they might be. This implies that ZFC is consistent, and much more. You can move to stating that there exists a weakly compact cardinal, which then implies that not only it is consistent that there is an inaccessible cardinals, but that it is consistent that every set is smaller in size from some inaccessible cardinal.

And the list continues.

Interestingly, though, while the large cardinal axioms are stating that some particular sets exists (or don't exist), consistency statements can be seen as axioms added to the theory of the natural numbers. So you can also investigate them from arithmetic theories such as PA or PRA, both of which are vastly weaker than ZFC.