Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 March 2014
The main purpose of this note is to present new semi-model-theoretic proofs of some axiomatization results. Principally, we prove the result of [van Dalen and Statman] on the axiomatization of the equality fragment of the intuitionistic theory of apartness by ω-fold stability axioms. Further examples are also discussed.
The intuitionistic theories of equality and apartness are given by the following nonlogical axioms:
EQ .
AP .
In AP, one can define a notion of equality by means of the abbreviation:
.
The corresponding interpretation of E Q in AP is not faithful — since equality is a negation, we have stability of equality:
.
The equality fragment of AP is axiomatized by a suitable generalization of the stability of equality. To state it, one first defines a sequence of partial apartness relations:
.
A simple induction shows, for all n,
whence
.