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Ebthgidr comments on Stupid Questions December 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: Gondolinian 08 December 2014 03:39PM

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Comment author: DanielFilan 10 December 2014 11:09:14AM *  0 points [-]

You're right that (if X then Y) is just fancy notation for (not(X) or Y). However, I think you're mixing up levels of where things are being proved. For the purposes of the rest of this comment, I'll use provable(X) to mean that PA or whatever proves X, and not that we can prove X. Now, suppose provable(P). Then provable(not(not(P))) is derivable in PA. You then claim that not(provable(not(P))) follows in PA, that is to say, that provable(not(Q)) -> not(provable(Q)). However, this is precisely the statement that PA is consistent, which is not provable in PA. Therefore, even though we can go on to prove not(provable(not(P))), PA can't, so that last step doesn't work.

Comment author: Ebthgidr 10 December 2014 11:17:23AM 0 points [-]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.