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This question is about synonymy of Morse-Kelley set theory "$\sf MK$" with the following Mereological theory:

Language: first order logic with equality. Extra-logical primitives: $\subseteq$ standing for the binary relation "is a part of", and a partial unary function symbol $\{\}$ standing for "is the label of", or can also be read as "is the singleton of".

Extra-logical Axioms:

Parthood: $x \subseteq x \\ x \subseteq y \subseteq x \to x=y \\ x \subseteq y \subseteq z \to x \subseteq z$

Supplmentation: $y\not \subseteq x \to \exists z \subseteq y: \neg z \ O \ x$

Define: $\operatorname{atom}(x) \iff \forall y \subseteq x \, (y=x)$

Atomicity: $\forall x \, \exists \text{ atom } y: y \subseteq x $

Composition: $\exists z: \varphi, \to \exists x \, \forall \text{ atom } y \,( y \subseteq x \leftrightarrow \exists z: \varphi(z) \land y \subseteq z); \text{ if } x \text { is not free in } \varphi$

Define: $(x= \mathcal S \, y: \varphi) \iff \forall \text{ atom } y \,( y \subseteq x \leftrightarrow \exists z: \varphi(z) \land y \subseteq z)$

Labeling: $\{x\}=\{y\} \to x=y$

Purity: $ \exists x \, (y=\{x\}) \leftrightarrow \operatorname{atom}(y)$

Start: $\exists a \, \exists b: a \neq b \land \forall x \,( x=\{x\} \leftrightarrow x=a \lor x = b)$

Foundation: $ \forall x (\exists \{x\} \subseteq h \to x \ O \ h ) \to \exists a \subseteq h: a=\{a\}$

Replacement: $\varphi(a,b) \land \varphi (c,d) \to [a=c \leftrightarrow b=d] \\ \varphi(a,b) \to \operatorname {atom}(a) \land \exists l: l=\{b\} \\ A = \mathcal S \, a: \exists b \, ( \varphi(a,b) ) \\ B= \mathcal S \, b: \exists a \, ( \varphi(a,b) ) \\ \to \\ \exists l: l=\{A\} \leftrightarrow \exists l: l= \{B\} $

Define: ${\sf Q}= \mathcal S \, a: a=\{a\}$

Abundance: $\exists l: l= \{{\sf Q}\}$

Infinity: $\exists x: x \not \subseteq {\sf Q} \land \exists l: l=\{x\} \land \forall y: \{y\} \subseteq x \to \{\{y\}\} \subseteq x$

Choice: $\exists C \, \forall x \, \exists y : y=C(x) \land \exists \{y\} \subseteq x$

This theory does respect all tenets of Mereology, the first four principles are the axioms of Atomic General Extensional Mereology "$\sf AGEM$". Define set membership $\in$ as:

$$x \in y \iff \exists z \subseteq y: z=\{x\} $$

Call the collection of all sentences written in $\sf FOL(=,\in)$ over the whole domain of this theory (i.e. all quantifiers unrestricted) that are provable in this theory as "$\sf MMK$", standing for "Mereological $\sf MK$".

It should be made clear that $\sf MMK$ proves the non-existence of an empty set, minimally breaches Foundation, and that it is fully extensional.

Is $\sf MMK$ synonymous with $\sf MK$?

Is $\sf MK$ synonymous with this theory?

This question is related to the question "Is ZFGC, minimally modified to allow two Quine atoms instead of the empty set, synonymous\bi-interpretable with ZFGC?", and I was hoping that the positive answer to it can be extended to the case here.

Note: "$ O $" stands for the overlap relation (i.e. existence of a common part), and "$\mathcal S \, a: \varphi$" stands for "the sum of all atoms realizing $\varphi$". The expression "$\exists \{x\} \subseteq y$" stands for "$\exists z: z=\{x\} \land z \subseteq y$".

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  • $\begingroup$ Supplementation is the wrong way around. If $x = \mathbb{N}$ and $y = {0}$, then no subset of $y$ is disjoint from $x$, but there are subsets of $x$ that are disjoint from $y$. $\endgroup$
    – paste bee
    Commented Jan 26 at 10:00
  • $\begingroup$ @pastebee, Thanks! I've corrected it. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 26 at 12:01

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If, for every atom $a$, $a \subseteq x$ implies $a \subseteq y$, then $x \subseteq y$. Assume $x \nsubseteq y$, then by Supplementation, there is a $z \subseteq x$ such that $\neg z \ O \ y$. By Atomicity, there is an atom $a \subseteq z \subseteq x$, and $a \nsubseteq y$ because $\neg zOy$, contradicting the assumption that if $a \subseteq x$ then $a \subseteq y$.

This implies that the usual definition $a \subseteq b \iff \forall x (x \in a \Rightarrow x \in b)$ and your definition of $\in$ from $\subseteq$ are inverses of each other, so it does not matter whether the language is $\in$ or ($\subseteq$, $\{\}$); your mereological theory is synonymous with $\sf MMK$.

MMK and MK are not synonymous. A model of MK has no nontrivial definable automorphisms, but any model of MMK has a definable automorphism by swapping the two Quine atoms. If they were synonymous, then a model of MK would also be a model of MMK (with a different $\in$), and therefore have a nontrivial definable automorphism, which is impossible. (A similar argument might work to prove they are not bi-interpretable, but I'm not sure of the details). So the issue is that we can't distinguish the two Quine atoms. (The reason this argument didn't work in the case of ZFGC was the global choice function $C$, which can be used to pick one of the Quine atoms; in MMK, while choice functions do exist, there isn't a choice of one particular one that an isomorphism has to preserve).

If we add a constant $q$ and the axiom $q \in q$ (so that we can distinguish the Quine atoms), the resulting theory is synonymous with MK, by a similar argument to my previous answer, except we use $q$ to remember which Quine atom was the empty set.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you! As regards Infinity you are right, this I missed to add, I'll correct it. But this theory proves the power set axiom. So, after all it is not synonymous with MK because we cannot distinguish between the two atoms, that we need to add a constant to do that. Actually, that's what I wanted to really know. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 28 at 3:51
  • $\begingroup$ but why we cannot fix a specific global choice function, and work your older argument in reference to it? Also, another way if we add a constant function standing for global choice instead of adding a primitive constant denoting one of the Quine atoms, would that work to achieve synonymy. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 28 at 3:59
  • $\begingroup$ How does it prove power set? And which of the axioms is false in my "hereditarily countable sets" model? $\endgroup$
    – paste bee
    Commented Jan 28 at 4:03
  • $\begingroup$ Adding a constant function for global choice would make it synonymous with "MK with a constant function for global choice", by applying my earlier argument. I don't know if that's synonymous with MK, but I think it probably isn't. $\endgroup$
    – paste bee
    Commented Jan 28 at 4:08
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    $\begingroup$ Yep, that's synonymous with MK. The specifics of the argument are a little different (now $\{\{\varnothing\}\}$, which is $\{b\}$, is unchanged, and $\{\varnothing,\{\varnothing\}\}$, which would be $\{a,b\}$, has to become something else, since $b = \{a,b\}$) but it's the exact same idea, and indeed the fact that they're definably different means we can just say $a$ corresponds to $\varnothing$ and not get any problems. $\endgroup$
    – paste bee
    Commented Jan 28 at 7:11

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