Predicativity, the Russell-Myhill Paradox, and Church's Intensional Logic

This paper sets out a predicative response to the Russell-Myhill paradox of propositions within the framework of Church's intensional logic. A predicative response places restrictions on the full comprehension schema, which asserts that every formula determines a higher-order entity. In addition to motivating the restriction on the comprehension schema from intuitions about the stability of reference, this paper contains a consistency proof for the predicative response to the Russell-Myhill paradox. The models used to establish this consistency also model other axioms of Church's intensional logic that have been criticized by Parsons and Klement: this, it turns out, is due to resources which also permit an interpretation of a fragment of Gallin's intensional logic. Finally, the relation between the predicative response to the Russell-Myhill paradox of propositions and the Russell paradox of sets is discussed, and it is shown that the predicative conception of set induced by this predicative intensional logic allows one to respond to the Wehmeier problem of many non-extensions.Comment: Forthcoming in The Journal of Philosophical Logi

Topological arbiters

This paper initiates the study of topological arbiters, a concept rooted in Poincare-Lefschetz duality. Given an n-dimensional manifold W, a topological arbiter associates a value 0 or 1 to codimension zero submanifolds of W, subject to natural topological and duality axioms. For example, there is a unique arbiter on $RP^2$, which reports the location of the essential 1-cycle. In contrast, we show that there exists an uncountable collection of topological arbiters in dimension 4. Families of arbiters, not induced by homology, are also shown to exist in higher dimensions. The technical ingredients underlying the four dimensional results are secondary obstructions to generalized link-slicing problems. For classical links in the 3-sphere the construction relies on the existence of nilpotent embedding obstructions in dimension 4, reflected in particular by the Milnor group. In higher dimensions novel arbiters are produced using nontrivial squares in stable homotopy theory. The concept of "topological arbiter" derives from percolation and from 4-dimensional surgery. It is not the purpose of this paper to advance either of these subjects, but rather to study the concept for its own sake. However in appendices we give both an application to percolation, and the current understanding of the relationship between arbiters and surgery. An appendix also introduces a more general notion of a multi-arbiter. Properties and applications are discussed, including a construction of non-homological multi-arbiters.Comment: v3: A minor reorganization of the pape

f-cohomology and motives over number rings

This paper is concerned with an interpretation of f-cohomology, a modification of motivic cohomology of motives over number fields, in terms of motives over number rings. Under standard assumptions on mixed motives over finite fields, number fields and number rings, we show that the two extant definitions of f-cohomology of mixed motives $M_\eta$ over F--one via ramification conditions on $\ell$-adic realizations, another one via the K-theory of proper regular models--both agree with motivic cohomology of $\eta_{!*} M_\eta[1]$. Here $\eta_{!*}$ is constructed by a limiting process in terms of intermediate extension functors $j_{!*}$ defined in analogy to perverse sheaves.Comment: numbering has been updated to agree with the published versio

Maltsiniotis's first conjecture for K_1

We show that K_1 of an exact category agrees with K_1 of the associated triangulated derivator. More generally we show that K_1 of a Waldhausen category with cylinders and a saturated class of weak equivalences coincides with K_1 of the associated right pointed derivator.Comment: 23 pages, the main results have been generalize

The origin of the difference between space and time

All differences between the role of space and time in nature are explained by proposing the principles in which none of the space-time coordinates has an {\it a priori} special role. Spacetime is treated as a nondynamical manifold, with a fixed global ${\bf R}^D$ topology. Dynamical theory of gravity determines only the metric tensor on a fixed manifold. All dynamics is treated as a Cauchy problem, so it {\em follows} that one coordinate takes a special role. It is proposed that {\em any} boundary condition that is finite everywhere leads to a solution which is also finite everywhere. This explains the $(1,D-1)$ signature of the metric, the boundedness of energy from below, the absence of tachyons, and other related properties of nature. The time arrow is explained by proposing that the boundary condition should be ordered. The quantization is considered as a boundary condition for field operators. Only the physical degrees of freedom are quantized.Comment: 22 pages, late