Subsystems of Second Order Arithmetic

by Stephen G. Simpson

"From the point of view of the foundations of mathematics, this definitive work by Simpson is the most anxiously awaited monograph for over a decade. The "subsystems of second order arithmetic" provide the basic formal systems normally used in our current understanding of the logical structure of classical mathematics. Simpson provides an encyclopedic treatment of these systems with an emphasis on *Hilbert's program* (where infinitary mathematics is to be secured or reinterpreted by finitary mathematics), and the emerging *reverse mathematics* (where axioms necessary for providing theorems...