Description

Recent years have seen the appearance of many English-Ianguage hand- books of logie and numerous monographs on topieal discoveries in the foundations of mathematies. These publications on the foundations of mathematies as a whole are rather difficult for the beginners or refer the reader to other handbooks and various pieeemeal eontribu- tions and also sometimes to largely conceived "mathematical fol- klore" of unpublished results. As distinct from these, the present book is as easy as possible systematic exposition of the now classical results in the foundations of mathematics. Henee the book may be useful especially for those readers who want to have all the proofs carried out in full and all the concepts explained in detail. In this sense the book is self-contained. The reader's ability to guess is not assumed, and the author's ambition was to reduce the use of sueh words as evident and obvious in proofs to aminimum. This is why the book, it is believed, may be helpful in teaehing or learning the foundation of mathematics in those situations in which the student cannot refer to a parallel lecture on the subject. This is also the reason that I do not insert in the book the last results and the most modem and fashionable approaches to the subjeet, which does not enrich the essential knowledge in founda- tions but ean discourage the beginner by their abstract form. A. G.