We began our discussion by manufacturing what appeared to be an inconsistent formal system—one which was internally inconsistent, as well as inconsistent with the external world. But a moment later we took it all back, when we realized our error: that we had chosen unfortunate interpretations for the symbols. By changing the interpretations (in pq system, q changed its interpretation from "equal" to "equal or greater than"), we re gained consistency! It now becomes clearthat consistency isnota property ofa formal system per se, but depends on the interpretation which is proposed for it.