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Full Idea
1) 0 is a number; 2) The successor of any number is a number; 3) No two numbers have the same successor; 4) 0 is not the successor of any number; 5) If P is true of 0, and if P is true of any number n and of its successor, P is true of every number.
Gist of Idea
0 is a non-successor number, all successors are numbers, successors can't duplicate, if P(n) and P(n+1) then P(all-n)
Source
report of Giuseppe Peano (works [1890]) by Antony Flew - Pan Dictionary of Philosophy 'Peano'
Book Ref
Flew,Antony: 'A Dictionary of Philosophy', ed/tr. Speake,Jennifer [Pan 1979], p.245
A Reaction
Devised by Dedekind and proposed by Peano, these postulates were intended to avoid references to intuition in specifying the natural numbers. I wonder if they could define 'successor' without reference to 'number'.
| 15653 | We can add Reflexion Principles to Peano Arithmetic, which assert its consistency or soundness [Halbach on Peano] |
| 13949 | All models of Peano axioms are isomorphic, so the models all seem equally good for natural numbers [Cartwright,R on Peano] |
| 18113 | PA concerns any entities which satisfy the axioms [Peano, by Bostock] |
| 17634 | Peano axioms not only support arithmetic, but are also fairly obvious [Peano, by Russell] |
| 17635 | Arithmetic can have even simpler logical premises than the Peano Axioms [Russell on Peano] |
| 3338 | Numbers have been defined in terms of 'successors' to the concept of 'zero' [Peano, by Blackburn] |
| 5897 | 0 is a non-successor number, all successors are numbers, successors can't duplicate, if P(n) and P(n+1) then P(all-n) [Peano, by Flew] |