Satisfaction is not absolute

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the truth of first-order statements varies between models of set theory, showing that satisfaction is not absolute and depends on higher-order commitments beyond the structure itself.

Contribution

It provides mathematical proofs that satisfaction relations are non-absolute across models, challenging philosophical assumptions about the determinateness of truth.

Findings

Models with same natural numbers can disagree on arithmetic truth

Models with same reals can disagree on projective truth

Higher-order truths depend on additional commitments

Abstract

We prove that the satisfaction relation $\mathcal{N}\models\varphi[\vec a]$ of first-order logic is not absolute between models of set theory having the structure $\mathcal{N}$ and the formulas $\varphi$ all in common. Two models of set theory can have the same natural numbers, for example, and the same standard model of arithmetic $\langle\mathbb{N},{+},{\cdot},0,1,{\lt}\rangle$, yet disagree on their theories of arithmetic truth; two models of set theory can have the same natural numbers and the same arithmetic truths, yet disagree on their truths-about-truth, at any desired level of the iterated truth-predicate hierarchy; two models of set theory can have the same natural numbers and the same reals, yet disagree on projective truth; two models of set theory can have the same $\langle H_{\omega_2},{\in}\rangle$ or the same rank-initial segment $\langle V_\delta,{\in}\rangle$, yet disagree on which assertions are true in these structures. On the basis of these mathematical results, we argue that a philosophical commitment to the determinateness of the theory of truth for a structure cannot be seen as a consequence solely of the determinateness of the structure in which that truth resides. The determinate nature of arithmetic truth, for example, is not a consequence of the determinate nature of the arithmetic structure $\mathbb{N}=\{0,1,2,\ldots\}$ itself, but rather, we argue, is an additional higher-order commitment requiring its own analysis and justification.