I've come across several references to MK (Morse-Kelley set theory), which includes the idea of a proper class, a limitation of size, includes the axiom schema of comprehension across class variables (so for any $\phi(x,\overline y)$ with $x$ restricted to sets, there a class $X=(x : \phi(x,\overline y))$).


I have seen various statements about MK and how it proves the consistency of various things, including $Con(ZF)$, $Con(ZFC)$, $Con(NBG)$, and in fact, for any $T\subset MK$ finitely axiomatized, it proves $Con(T)$.


However, and quite frustratingly, I don't see any references to back up these claims, except occasionally links to other places where the claim was made, but not proven (or even proof-sketched). I would really appreciate a reference where I can see a proof of these claims, or (if it's easier) a quick sketch of why it should be true.


It's not obvious to me at all why quantifying across proper classes should allow this sort of thing, since all relevant sets (sets of proofs, or sets of statements, or whatever) should be contained in some subset of $\omega$, so should be able to be constructed in $ZF$.



Morse-Kelley set theory consistency strength
Let me give an easier (sketch of an) answer to the part of the question about proving Con(ZFC) in MK. Unlike Emil's answer, the following does not cover the case of arbitrary finitely axiomatized subtheories of MK. Intuitively, there's an "obvious" argument for the consistency of ZFC: All its axioms are true when the variables are interpreted as ranging over arbitrary sets. (The universe is a model of ZFC, except that it isn't a set.) And anything deducible from true axioms is true, so you can't deduce contradictions from ZFC. The trouble with this argument is that it relies on a notion of "truth in the universe" that can't be defined in ZFC. What goes wrong if you try to define, in the language of ZFC, this notion of truth (or satisfaction) in the universe? Just as in the definition of truth in a (set-sized) model, you'd proceed by induction on formulas, and there's no problem with atomic formulas and propositional connectives. Quantifiers, though, give the following problem: The truth value of $\exists x\ \phi(x)$ depends on the truth values of all the instances $\phi(a)$, and there are a proper class of these. In showing that definitions by recursion actually define functions, one has to reformulate the recursion in terms of partial functions that give enough evidence for particular values of the function being defined. (For example, the usual definition of the factorial can be made into an explicit definition by saying $n!=z$ iff there is a sequence $s$ of length $n$ with $s\_1=1$ and $s\_k=ks\_{k-1}$ for $2\leq k\leq n$ and $s\_n=z$.) If you use the same method to make the definition of "truth in the universe" explicit, you find that the "evidence" (analogous to $s$ for the factorial) needs to be a proper class. So ZFC can't handle that (and it's a good thing it can't, because otherwise it would prove its own consistency). But MK can; it's designed to deal nicely with quantification of proper classes. So in MK, one can define what it means for a formula to be true in the ZFC universe. Then one can prove that all the ZFC axioms are true in this sense and truth is preserved by logical deduction (here one uses induction over the number of steps in the deduction). Therefore deduction from ZFC axioms can never lead to contradictions.


