Elements of Mathematical Logic

An excellent introduction to mathematical logic, this book provides readers with a sound knowledge of the most important approaches to the subject, stressing the use of logical methods in attacking nontrivial problems.Its chapters cover the logic of classes (including a section on the structure and representation of Boolean algebras, which are applied in the following chapters to the study of deductive systems), the logic of propositions, the logic of propositional functions (summarizing the methods of Russell, Quine, Zermelo, Curry, and Church for the construction of such logics), and the general syntax of language, with a brief introduction that also illustrates applications to so-called undecidability and incompleteness theorems.Other topics include the simple proof of the completeness of the theory of combinations, Church's theorem on the recursive unsolvability of the decision problem for the restricted function calculus, and the demonstrable properties of a formal system as a criterion for its acceptability.