A Lost Proof

We re-investigate a proof example presented by George Boolos which perspicuously illustrates Gödel’s argument for the potentially drastic increase of proof-lengths in formal systems when carrying through the argument at too low a level. More concretely, restricting the order of the logic in which the proof is carried through to the order of the logic in which the problem is formulated in the first place can result in unmanageable long proofs, although there are short proofs in a logic of higher order. Our motivation in this paper is of practical nature and its aim is to sketch the implications of this example to current technology in automated theorem proving, to point to related questions about the foundational character of type theory (without explicit comprehension axioms) for mathematics, and to work out some challenging aspects with regard to the automation of this proof – which, as we belief, nicely illustrates the discrepancy between the creativity and intuition required in mathematics and the limitations of state of the art theorem provers.