The Bernays-Schönfinkel-Ramsey class for set theory: semidecidability

Abstract

As is well-known, the Bernays-Schönfinkel-Ramsey class of all prenex ∃^*∀^*-sentences which are valid in classical first-order logic is decidable. This paper paves the way to an analogous result which the authors deem to hold when the only available predicate symbols are ∈ and =, no constants or function symbols are present, and one moves inside a (rather generic) Set Theory whose axioms yield the well-foundedness of membership and the existence of infinite sets. Here semi-decidability of the satisfiability problem for the BSR class is proved by following a purely semantic approach, the remaining part of the decidability result being postponed to a forthcoming paper.