Extending Gödel's negative interpretation to ZF

Abstract

In [5] Gödel interpreted Peano arithmetic in Heyting arithmetic. In [8, p. 153], and [7, p. 344, (iii)], Kreisel observed that Gödel's interpretation extended to second order arithmetic. In [11] (see [4, p. 92] for a correction) and [10] Myhill extended the interpretation to type theory. We will show that Gödel's negative interpretation can be extended to Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. We consider a set theory T formulated in the minimal predicate calculus, which in the presence of the full law of excluded middle is the same as the classical theory of Zermelo and Fraenkel. Then, following Myhill, we define an inner model S in which the axioms of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory are true.More generally we show that any class X that is (i) transitive in the negative sense, ∀x ∈ X∀y ∈ x ¬ ¬ x ∈ X, (ii) contained in the class St = {x: ∀u(¬ ¬ u ∈ x→ u ∈ x)} of stable sets, and (iii) closed in the sense that ∀x(x ⊆ X ∼ ∼ x ∈ X), is a standard model of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. The class S is simply the ⊆-least such class, and, hence, could be defined by S = ⋂{X: ∀x(x ⊆ ∼ ∼ X→ ∼ ∼ x ∈ X)}. However, since we can only conservatively extend T to a class theory with Δ01-comprehension, but not with Δ11-comprehension, we will give a Δ01-definition of S within T.