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maximally consistent
A set of well-formed formulas (wff) is maximally consistent if is consistent and any consistent superset of it is itself: with consistent implies .
Below are some basic properties of a maximally consistent set :
1. is deductively closed ( is a theory): iff .
2. is complete: or for any wff .
3. for any wff , either or .
4. If , then is not consistent.
5. is a logic: contains all theorems and is closed under modus ponens.
6. .
7. iff implies .
8. iff and .
9. iff or .
Proof.
1. If , then clearly . Conversely, suppose . Let be a deduction of from , and . Suppose . Let be a deduction of from , then is a deduction of from , so . Since , , so is consistent. Since is maximal, , or .
2. Suppose , then by 1. Then is not consistent (since is maximal), which means , or , or .
3. If , then by 1, so by 2, and therefore by 1 again.
4. If , then by 3., so that is a deduction of from , showing that is not consistent.
5. If is a theorem, then , so that by 1. If and , then is a deduction of from , so by 1.
6. This is true for any consistent set.
7. Suppose . If , then since is closed under modus ponens. Conversely, suppose implies . This means that . Then by the deduction theorem, and therefore by 1.
8. Suppose , then by modus ponens on theorems and , we get , since is a logic by 5. Conversely, suppose , then by modus ponens twice on theorem , we get by 5.
9. Suppose . Then by the definition of , so by 3., which means or by the contrapositive of 8, or or by 3. Conversely, suppose or . Then by modus ponens on theorems or respectively, we get by 5.
∎
The converses of 2 and 3 above are true too, and they provide alternative definitions of maximal consistency.
1. any complete consistent theory is maximally consistent.
2. any consistent set satisfying the condition in 3 above is maximally consistent.
Proof.
Suppose is complete consistent. Let be a consistent superset of . is also complete. If , then , so since is consistent. But then since is a superset of , which means since is complete. But then since is deductively closed, which is a contradiction. Hence is maximal.
Next, suppose is consistent satisfying the condition: either or for any wff . Suppose is a consistent superset of . If , then by assumption, which means since is a superset of . But then both and are deducible from , contradicting the assumption that is consistent. Therefore, is not a proper superset of , or . ∎
Remarks.
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In the converse of 2, we require that be a theory, for there are complete consistent sets that are not deductively closed. One such an example is the set of all propositional variables: it can be shown that for every wff , exactly one of or holds.
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There is also a semantic characterization of a maximally consistent set: a set is maximally consistent iff there is a unique valuation such that for every wff in the set (see here).
Mathematics Subject Classification
03B05 Classical propositional logic03B10 Classical first-order logic
03B99 None of the above, but in MSC2010 section 03Bxx
03B45 Modal logic (including the logic of norms)
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