Fundamentals of Model Theory

William Weiss and Cherie D'Mello

Department of Mathematics
University of Toronto

c 2015 W.Weiss and C. D'Mello

 1
Introduction

Model Theory is the part of

mathematics which shows how to apply
logic to the study of structures in pure
mathematics. On the one hand it is the
ultimate abstraction; on the other, it has
immediate applications to every-day
mathematics. The fundamental tenet of
Model Theory is that mathematical truth,
like all truth, is relative. A statement may
be true or false, depending on how and
where it is interpreted. This isn't
necessarily due to mathematics itself,
but is a consequence of the language
that we use to express mathematical
ideas.
What at rst seems like a de ciency in
our language, can actually be shaped
into a powerful tool for understanding
mathematics. This book provides an
introduction to Model Theory which can
be used as a text for a reading course
or a summer project at the senior
undergraduate or graduate level. It is also a primer
which will give someone a self contained overview of
the subject, before diving into one of the more
encyclopedic standard graduate texts.
Any reader who is familiar with the cardinality of a
set and the algebraic closure of a eld can proceed
without worry. Many readers will have some acquain-
tance with elementary logic, but this is not absolutely
required, since all necessary concepts from logic are
reviewed in Chapter 0. Chapter 1 gives the motivating
ex-amples; it is short and we recommend that you
peruse it rst, before studying the more technical
aspects of Chapter 0. Chapters 2 and 3 are
selections of some of the most important techniques
in Model Theory. The remaining chapters investigate
the relationship between Model Theory and the
algebra of the real and complex numbers. Thirty
exercises develop familiarity with the de nitions and
consolidate understanding of the main proof
techniques.
Throughout the book we present
applications which cannot easily be found
elsewhere in such detail. Some are
chosen for their value in other areas of
mathe-matics: Ramsey's Theorem, the
Tarski-Seidenberg Theorem. Some are
chosen for their immediate appeal to
every mathematician: existence of in
nitesimals for cal-culus, graph colouring
on the plane. And some, like Hilbert's
Seventeenth Problem, are chosen
because of how amazing it is that logic
can play an important role in the solution
of a problem from high school algebra. In
each case, the derivation is shorter than
any which tries to avoid logic. More
importantly, the methods of Model Theory
display clearly the structure of the main
ideas of the proofs, showing how
theorems of logic combine with theorems
from other areas of mathematics to
produce stunning results.
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