Here is an interesting quote from Bruno Poizat's "A Course in Model Theory":

The compactness theorem, in the forms of Theorems 4.5 and 4.6, is due to Gödel; in fact, as explained in the beginning of Section 4.3 [Henkin's Method], the theorem was for Gödel a simple corollary (we could even say an unexpected corollary, a rather strange remark!) of his "completeness theorem" of logic, in which he showed that a finite system of rules of inference is sufficient to express the notion of consequence (see Chapter 7). It could also have been taken from [Herbrand 1928] or [Gentzen 1934], in which results of the same sort were proven.

 

This unfortunate compactness theorem was brought in by the back door, and we might say that its original modesty still does it wrong in logic textbooks. In my opinion it is a much more essential and primordial (and thus also less sophisticated) than Gödel's completeness theorem, which states that we can formalize deduction in a certain arithmetic way; it is an error in method to deduce it from the latter.

 

If we do it this way, it is by a very blind fidelity to the historic conditions that witnessed its birth. The weight of this tradition is apparent even in a work like [Chang-Keisler 1973], which was considered a bible of model theory in the 1970s; it begins with syntactic developments that have nothing to do with anything in the succeeding chapters. This approach---deducing Compactness from the possibility of axiomatizing the notion of deduction---once applied to the propositional calculus gives the strangest proof on record of the compactness of $2^\omega$!

 

It is undoubtedly more "logical," but it is inconvenient, to require the student to absorb a system of formal deduction, ultimately quite arbitrary, which can be justified only much later when we can show that it indeed represents the notion of semantic consequence. We should not lose sight of the fact that the formalisms have no raison d'être except insofar as they are adequate for representing notions of substance.

See also this old answer of mine where the same quote appears.

Here is an interesting quote from Bruno Poizat's "A Course in Model Theory":

The compactness theorem, in the forms of Theorems 4.5 and 4.6, is due to Gödel; in fact, as explained in the beginning of Section 4.3 [Henkin's Method], the theorem was for Gödel a simple corollary (we could even say an unexpected corollary, a rather strange remark!) of his "completeness theorem" of logic, in which he showed that a finite system of rules of inference is sufficient to express the notion of consequence (see Chapter 7). It could also have been taken from [Herbrand 1928] or [Gentzen 1934], in which results of the same sort were proven.

This unfortunate compactness theorem was brought in by the back door, and we might say that its original modesty still does it wrong in logic textbooks. In my opinion it is a much more essential and primordial (and thus also less sophisticated) than Gödel's completeness theorem, which states that we can formalize deduction in a certain arithmetic way; it is an error in method to deduce it from the latter.

If we do it this way, it is by a very blind fidelity to the historic conditions that witnessed its birth. The weight of this tradition is apparent even in a work like [Chang-Keisler 1973], which was considered a bible of model theory in the 1970s; it begins with syntactic developments that have nothing to do with anything in the succeeding chapters. This approach---deducing Compactness from the possibility of axiomatizing the notion of deduction---once applied to the propositional calculus gives the strangest proof on record of the compactness of $2^\omega$!

It is undoubtedly more "logical," but it is inconvenient, to require the student to absorb a system of formal deduction, ultimately quite arbitrary, which can be justified only much later when we can show that it indeed represents the notion of semantic consequence. We should not lose sight of the fact that the formalisms have no raison d'être except insofar as they are adequate for representing notions of substance.

See also this old answer of mine where the same quote appears.

Here is an interesting quote from Bruno Poizat's "A Course in Model Theory":

The compactness theorem, in the forms of Theorems 4.5 and 4.6, is due to Gödel; in fact, as explained in the beginning of Section 4.3 [Henkin's Method], the theorem was for Gödel a simple corollary (we could even say an unexpected corollary, a rather strange remark!) of his "completeness theorem" of logic, in which he showed that a finite system of rules of inference is sufficient to express the notion of consequence (see Chapter 7). It could also have been taken from [Herbrand 1928] or [Gentzen 1934], in which results of the same sort were proven.

This unfortunate compactness theorem was brought in by the back door, and we might say that its original modesty still does it wrong in logic textbooks. In my opinion it is a much more essential and primordial (and thus also less sophisticated) than Gödel's completeness theorem, which states that we can formalize deduction in a certain arithmetic way; it is an error in method to deduce it from the latter.

If we do it this way, it is by a very blind fidelity to the historic conditions that witnessed its birth. The weight of this tradition is apparent even in a work like [Chang-Keisler 1973], which was considered a bible of model theory in the 1970s; it begins with syntactic developments that have nothing to do with anything in the succeeding chapters. This approach---deducing Compactness from the possibility of axiomatizing the notion of deduction---once applied to the propositional calculus gives the strangest proof on record of the compactness of $2^\omega$!

It is undoubtedly more "logical," but it is inconvenient, to require the student to absorb a system of formal deduction, ultimately quite arbitrary, which can be justified only much later when we can show that it indeed represents the notion of semantic consequence. We should not lose sight of the fact that the formalisms have no raison d'être except insofar as they are adequate for representing notions of substance.

See also this old answer of mine where the same quote appears.

Here is an interesting quote from Bruno Poizat's "A Course in Model Theory":

The compactness theorem, in the forms of Theorems 4.5 and 4.6, is due to Gödel; in fact, as explained in the beginning of Section 4.3 [Henkin's Method], the theorem was for Gödel a simple corollary (we could even say an unexpected corollary, a rather strange remark!) of his "completeness theorem" of logic, in which he showed that a finite system of rules of inference is sufficient to express the notion of consequence (see Chapter 7). It could also have been taken from [Herbrand 1928] or [Gentzen 1934], in which results of the same sort were proven.

This unfortunate compactness theorem was brought in by the back door, and we might say that its original modesty still does it wrong in logic textbooks. In my opinion it is a much more essential and primordial (and thus also less sophisticated) than Gödel's completeness theorem, which states that we can formalize deduction in a certain arithmetic way; it is an error in method to deduce it from the latter.

If we do it this way, it is by a very blind fidelity to the historic conditions that witnessed its birth. The weight of this tradition is apparent even in a work like [Chang-Keisler 1973], which was considered a bible of model theory in the 1970s; it begins with syntactic developments that have nothing to do with anything in the succeeding chapters. This approach---deducing Compactness from the possibility of axiomatizing the notion of deduction---once applied to the propositional calculus gives the strangest proof on record of the compactness of $2^\omega$!

It is undoubtedly more "logical," but it is inconvenient, to require the student to absorb a system of formal deduction, ultimately quite arbitrary, which can be justified only much later when we can show that it indeed represents the notion of semantic consequence. We should not lose sight of the fact that the formalisms have no raison d'être except insofar as they are adequate for representing notions of substance.

See also this old answer of mine where the same quote appears.