Single Idea 17452

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / c. Priority of numbers]

Full Idea

Dedekind and Cantor said the cardinals may be defined in terms of the ordinals: The cardinal number of a set S is the least ordinal onto whose predecessors the members of S can be mapped one-one.

Gist of Idea

Ordinals can define cardinals, as the smallest ordinal that maps the set

Source

report of Richard Dedekind (Nature and Meaning of Numbers [1888]) by Richard G. Heck - Cardinality, Counting and Equinumerosity 5

Book Reference

-: 'Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic' [-], p.200