The purpose of this thesis is to give a "foundational" characterization of some common complexity classes. Such a characterization is distinguished by the fact that no explicit resource bounds are used. For example, we characterize the polynomial time computable functions without making any direct reference to polynomials, time, or even computation. Complexity classes characterized in this way include polynomial time, the functional polytime hierarchy, the logspace decidable problems, and NC. After developing these "resource free" definitions, we apply them to redeveloping the feasible logical system of Cook and Urquhart, and show how this first-order system relates to the second-order system of Leivant. The connection is an interesting one since the systems were defined independently and have what appear to be very different rules for the principle of induction. Furthermore it is interesting to see, albeit in a very specific context, how to retract a second order statement, ("inducti...

Effective model theory studies model theoretic notions with an eye towards issues of computability and effectiveness. We consider two possible starting points. If the basic objects are taken to be theories, then the appropriate effective version investigates decidable theories (the set of theorems is computable) and decidable structures (ones with decidable theories). If the objects of initial interest are typical mathematical structures, then the starting point is computable structures. We present an introduction to both of these aspects of effective model theory organized roughly around the themes of the number and types of models of theories with particular attention to categoricity (as either a hypothesis or a conclusion) and the analysis of various computability issues in families of models.

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This little gem is stated unbilled and proved (completely) in the last two lines of §2 of the short note Kleene (1938). In modern notation, with all the hypotheses stated explicitly and in a strong form, it reads as follows: Theorem 1 (SRT). Fix a set V ⊆ N, and suppose that for each natural number n ∈ N = {0, 1, 2,...}, ϕ n: N n+1 ⇀ V is a recursive partial function of (n + 1) arguments with values in V so that the standard assumptions (1) and (2) hold with {e}(⃗x) = ϕ n e (⃗x) = ϕ n (e, ⃗x) (⃗x = (x1,..., xn) ∈ N n). (1) Every n-ary recursive partial function with values in V is ϕ n e for some e. (2) For all m, n, there is a recursive (total) function S = S m n: N m+1 → N such that {S(e, ⃗y)}(⃗x) = {e}(⃗y, ⃗x) (e ∈ N, ⃗y ∈ N m, ⃗x ∈ N n). Then, for every recursive, partial function f(e, ⃗y, ⃗x) of (1+m+n) arguments with values in V, there is a total recursive function ˜z(⃗y) of m arguments such that