Abstract We present an analogue of Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem for systems of second-order arithmetic. Whereas Gödel showed that sufficiently strong theories that are $\Pi ^0_1$ -sound and $\Sigma ^0_1$ -definable do not prove their own $\Pi ^0_1$ -soundness, we prove that sufficiently strong theories that are $\Pi ^1_1$ -sound and $\Sigma ^1_1$ -definable do not prove their own $\Pi ^1_1$ -soundness. Our proof does not involve the construction of a self-referential sentence but rather relies on ordinal analysis.

Abstract It is well-known that natural axiomatic theories are well-ordered by consistency strength. However, it is possible to construct descending chains of artificial theories with respect to consistency strength. We provide an explanation of this well-orderedness phenomenon by studying a coarsening of the consistency strength order, namely, the $\Pi ^1_1$ reflection strength order. We prove that there are no descending sequences of $\Pi ^1_1$ sound extensions of $\mathsf {ACA}_0$ in this ordering. Accordingly, we can attach a rank in this order, which we call reflection rank, to any $\Pi ^1_1$ sound extension of $\mathsf {ACA}_0$ . We prove that for any $\Pi ^1_1$ sound theoryTextending $\mathsf {ACA}_0^+$ , the reflection rank ofTequals the $\Pi ^1_1$ proof-theoretic ordinal ofT. We also prove that the $\Pi ^1_1$ proof-theoretic ordinal of $\alpha $ iterated $\Pi ^1_1$ reflection is $\varepsilon _\alpha $ . Finally, we use our results to provide straightforward well-foundedness proofs of ordinal notation systems based on reflection principles.

Abstract We examine recursive monotonic functions on the Lindenbaum algebra of $EA$ . We prove that no such function sends every consistent φ to a sentence with deductive strength strictly between φ and $\left( {\varphi \wedge Con\left( \varphi \right)} \right)$ . We generalize this result to iterates of consistency into the effective transfinite. We then prove that for any recursive monotonic function f, if there is an iterate of $Con$ that bounds f everywhere, then f must be somewhere equal to an iterate of $Con$ .