A derivation of number theory from ancestral theory

Abstract

Martin has shown that the notions of ancestral and class-inclusion are sufficient to develop the theory of natural numbers in a system containing variables of only one type.The purpose of the present paper is to show that an analogous construction is possible in a system containing, beyond the quantificational level, only the ancestral and the ordered pair.The formulae of our system comprise quantificational schemata and anything which can be obtained therefrom by writing pairs (e.g. (x; y), ((x; y); (x; (y; y))) etc.) for free variables, or by writing ancestral abstracts (e.g. (*xyFxy) etc.) for schematic letters, or both.The ancestral abstract (*xyFxy) means what is usually meant by ; and the formula (*xyFxy)zw answers to Martin's (zw; xy)(Fxy).The system presupposes a non-simple applied functional calculus of the first order, with a rule of substitution for predicate letters; over and above this it has three axioms for the ancestral and two for the ordered pair.