95 ideas
| 18194 | 'Forcing' can produce new models of ZFC from old models [Maddy] |
| 9550 | We only know relational facts about the empty set, but nothing intrinsic [Chihara] |
| 9562 | In simple type theory there is a hierarchy of null sets [Chihara] |
| 9572 | Realists about sets say there exists a null set in the real world, with no members [Chihara] |
| 9573 | The null set is a structural position which has no other position in membership relation [Chihara] |
| 9551 | What is special about Bill Clinton's unit set, in comparison with all the others? [Chihara] |
| 18195 | A Large Cardinal Axiom would assert ever-increasing stages in the hierarchy [Maddy] |
| 13011 | New axioms are being sought, to determine the size of the continuum [Maddy] |
| 13014 | Extensional sets are clearer, simpler, unique and expressive [Maddy] |
| 13013 | The Axiom of Extensionality seems to be analytic [Maddy] |
| 13021 | The Axiom of Infinity states Cantor's breakthrough that launched modern mathematics [Maddy] |
| 13022 | Infinite sets are essential for giving an account of the real numbers [Maddy] |
| 18191 | Axiom of Infinity: completed infinite collections can be treated mathematically [Maddy] |
| 13023 | The Power Set Axiom is needed for, and supported by, accounts of the continuum [Maddy] |
| 18193 | The Axiom of Foundation says every set exists at a level in the set hierarchy [Maddy] |
| 13024 | Efforts to prove the Axiom of Choice have failed [Maddy] |
| 13025 | Modern views say the Choice set exists, even if it can't be constructed [Maddy] |
| 13026 | A large array of theorems depend on the Axiom of Choice [Maddy] |
| 17610 | The Axiom of Choice paradoxically allows decomposing a sphere into two identical spheres [Maddy] |
| 18169 | Axiom of Reducibility: propositional functions are extensionally predicative [Maddy] |
| 9549 | The set theorist cannot tell us what 'membership' is [Chihara] |
| 13019 | The Iterative Conception says everything appears at a stage, derived from the preceding appearances [Maddy] |
| 13018 | Limitation of Size is a vague intuition that over-large sets may generate paradoxes [Maddy] |
| 17824 | The master science is physical objects divided into sets [Maddy] |
| 8755 | Maddy replaces pure sets with just objects and perceived sets of objects [Maddy, by Shapiro] |
| 9571 | ZFU refers to the physical world, when it talks of 'urelements' [Chihara] |
| 18151 | Could we replace sets by the open sentences that define them? [Chihara, by Bostock] |
| 9563 | A pack of wolves doesn't cease when one member dies [Chihara] |
| 8758 | We could talk of open sentences, instead of sets [Chihara, by Shapiro] |
| 10594 | Henkin semantics is more plausible for plural logic than for second-order logic [Maddy] |
| 17620 | Critics of if-thenism say that not all starting points, even consistent ones, are worth studying [Maddy] |
| 18168 | 'Propositional functions' are propositions with a variable as subject or predicate [Maddy] |
| 9561 | The mathematics of relations is entirely covered by ordered pairs [Chihara] |
| 17605 | Hilbert's geometry and Dedekind's real numbers were role models for axiomatization [Maddy] |
| 17625 | If two mathematical themes coincide, that suggest a single deep truth [Maddy] |
| 9552 | Sentences are consistent if they can all be true; for Frege it is that no contradiction can be deduced [Chihara] |
| 18171 | Cantor and Dedekind brought completed infinities into mathematics [Maddy] |
| 18190 | Completed infinities resulted from giving foundations to calculus [Maddy] |
| 17615 | Every infinite set of reals is either countable or of the same size as the full set of reals [Maddy] |
| 18175 | For any cardinal there is always a larger one (so there is no set of all sets) [Maddy] |
| 18196 | An 'inaccessible' cardinal cannot be reached by union sets or power sets [Maddy] |
| 18172 | Infinity has degrees, and large cardinals are the heart of set theory [Maddy] |
| 18187 | Theorems about limits could only be proved once the real numbers were understood [Maddy] |
| 9553 | Analytic geometry gave space a mathematical structure, which could then have axioms [Chihara] |
| 18182 | The extension of concepts is not important to me [Maddy] |
| 18177 | In the ZFC hierarchy it is impossible to form Frege's set of all three-element sets [Maddy] |
| 18164 | Frege solves the Caesar problem by explicitly defining each number [Maddy] |
| 18163 | Mathematics rests on the logic of proofs, and on the set theoretic axioms [Maddy] |
| 17825 | Set theory (unlike the Peano postulates) can explain why multiplication is commutative [Maddy] |
| 17826 | Standardly, numbers are said to be sets, which is neat ontology and epistemology [Maddy] |
| 17828 | Numbers are properties of sets, just as lengths are properties of physical objects [Maddy] |
| 10718 | A natural number is a property of sets [Maddy, by Oliver] |
| 18185 | Unified set theory gives a final court of appeal for mathematics [Maddy] |
| 18183 | Set theory brings mathematics into one arena, where interrelations become clearer [Maddy] |
| 18186 | Identifying geometric points with real numbers revealed the power of set theory [Maddy] |
| 18184 | Making set theory foundational to mathematics leads to very fruitful axioms [Maddy] |
| 18188 | The line of rationals has gaps, but set theory provided an ordered continuum [Maddy] |
| 17618 | Set-theory tracks the contours of mathematical depth and fruitfulness [Maddy] |
| 17830 | Number theory doesn't 'reduce' to set theory, because sets have number properties [Maddy] |
| 17827 | Sets exist where their elements are, but numbers are more like universals [Maddy] |
| 10192 | We can replace existence of sets with possibility of constructing token sentences [Chihara, by MacBride] |
| 17823 | If mathematical objects exist, how can we know them, and which objects are they? [Maddy] |
| 8756 | Intuition doesn't support much mathematics, and we should question its reliability [Maddy, by Shapiro] |
| 17733 | We know mind-independent mathematical truths through sets, which rest on experience [Maddy, by Jenkins] |
| 18204 | Scientists posit as few entities as possible, but set theorist posit as many as possible [Maddy] |
| 18207 | Maybe applications of continuum mathematics are all idealisations [Maddy] |
| 17614 | The connection of arithmetic to perception has been idealised away in modern infinitary mathematics [Maddy] |
| 17829 | Number words are unusual as adjectives; we don't say 'is five', and numbers always come first [Maddy] |
| 10265 | Chihara's system is a variant of type theory, from which he can translate sentences [Chihara, by Shapiro] |
| 8759 | We can replace type theory with open sentences and a constructibility quantifier [Chihara, by Shapiro] |
| 18167 | We can get arithmetic directly from HP; Law V was used to get HP from the definition of number [Maddy] |
| 10264 | Introduce a constructibility quantifiers (Cx)Φ - 'it is possible to construct an x such that Φ' [Chihara, by Shapiro] |
| 21812 | Being is the product of pure intellect [Plotinus] |
| 21817 | The One does not exist, but is the source of all existence [Plotinus] |
| 21824 | The One is a principle which transcends Being [Plotinus] |
| 21813 | Number determines individual being [Plotinus] |
| 18205 | The theoretical indispensability of atoms did not at first convince scientists that they were real [Maddy] |
| 9559 | If a successful theory confirms mathematics, presumably a failed theory disconfirms it? [Chihara] |
| 9566 | No scientific explanation would collapse if mathematical objects were shown not to exist [Chihara] |
| 5506 | If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication [Plotinus] |
| 21827 | The movement of Soul is continuous, but we are only aware of the parts of it that are sensed [Plotinus] |
| 18206 | Science idealises the earth's surface, the oceans, continuities, and liquids [Maddy] |
| 21828 | A person is the whole of their soul [Plotinus] |
| 21809 | Our soul has the same ideal nature as the oldest god, and is honourable above the body [Plotinus] |
| 21825 | The soul is outside of all of space, and has no connection to the bodily order [Plotinus] |
| 9568 | I prefer the open sentences of a Constructibility Theory, to Platonist ideas of 'equivalence classes' [Chihara] |
| 9547 | Mathematical entities are causally inert, so the causal theory of reference won't work for them [Chihara] |
| 21826 | The Soul reasons about the Right, so there must be some permanent Right about which it reasons [Plotinus] |
| 6922 | Ecstasy is for the neo-Platonist the highest psychological state of man [Plotinus, by Feuerbach] |
| 21814 | How can multiple existence arise from the unified One? [Plotinus] |
| 21815 | Because the One is immobile, it must create by radiation, light the sun producing light [Plotinus] |
| 21816 | Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the One [Plotinus] |
| 9574 | 'Gunk' is an individual possessing no parts that are atoms [Chihara] |
| 21808 | Soul is author of all of life, and of the stars, and it gives them law and movement [Plotinus] |
| 21811 | Even the soul is secondary to the Intellectual-Principle [Nous], of which soul is an utterance [Plotinus] |