MrMind comments on Syntacticism - Less Wrong Discussion
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If in formal system C you can proove that formal system A prooves statements about formal system B, and since
then it means that system C is a real meta-theory for system A and B, and since B is real, then A is making 'true' statements.
It's the same thing. What distinguishes mathematics from fantasy narrative is the strict adherence to a set of rules: if some system is inconsistent, then it's equivalent to have no rules (that is, all inconsistent systems have the same proving power).
The distinction between set and class is only meaningful in a formal system... and I don't think you want a theory able to talk about the quantity of the totality of the real formal systems...