Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Bacchae', 'What are Sets and What are they For?' and 'Investigations in the Foundations of Set Theory I'

expand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts

25 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
9283 Our ancient beliefs can never be overthrown by subtle arguments [Euripides]
2. Reason / D. Definition / 8. Impredicative Definition
15924 Predicative definitions are acceptable in mathematics if they distinguish objects, rather than creating them? [Zermelo, by Lavine]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 1. Set Theory
17608 We take set theory as given, and retain everything valuable, while avoiding contradictions [Zermelo]
17607 Set theory investigates number, order and function, showing logical foundations for mathematics [Zermelo]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / b. Empty (Null) Set
14240 The empty set is something, not nothing! [Oliver/Smiley]
14239 The empty set is usually derived from Separation, but it also seems to need Infinity [Oliver/Smiley]
14241 We don't need the empty set to express non-existence, as there are other ways to do that [Oliver/Smiley]
14242 Maybe we can treat the empty set symbol as just meaning an empty term [Oliver/Smiley]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / c. Unit (Singleton) Sets
14243 The unit set may be needed to express intersections that leave a single member [Oliver/Smiley]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / a. Axioms for sets
10870 ZFC: Existence, Extension, Specification, Pairing, Unions, Powers, Infinity, Choice [Zermelo, by Clegg]
13012 Zermelo published his axioms in 1908, to secure a controversial proof [Zermelo, by Maddy]
17609 Set theory can be reduced to a few definitions and seven independent axioms [Zermelo]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / c. Axiom of Pairing II
13017 Zermelo introduced Pairing in 1930, and it seems fairly obvious [Zermelo, by Maddy]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / i. Axiom of Foundation VIII
13015 Zermelo used Foundation to block paradox, but then decided that only Separation was needed [Zermelo, by Maddy]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / m. Axiom of Separation
13486 Not every predicate has an extension, but Separation picks the members that satisfy a predicate [Zermelo, by Hart,WD]
13020 The Axiom of Separation requires set generation up to one step back from contradiction [Zermelo, by Maddy]
5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 6. Plural Quantification
14234 If you only refer to objects one at a time, you need sets in order to refer to a plurality [Oliver/Smiley]
14237 We can use plural language to refer to the set theory domain, to avoid calling it a 'set' [Oliver/Smiley]
5. Theory of Logic / I. Semantics of Logic / 3. Logical Truth
14245 Logical truths are true no matter what exists - but predicate calculus insists that something exists [Oliver/Smiley]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / e. Ordinal numbers
13487 In ZF, the Burali-Forti Paradox proves that there is no set of all ordinals [Zermelo, by Hart,WD]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / g. Applying mathematics
14246 If mathematics purely concerned mathematical objects, there would be no applied mathematics [Oliver/Smiley]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 5. Definitions of Number / f. Zermelo numbers
18178 For Zermelo the successor of n is {n} (rather than n U {n}) [Zermelo, by Maddy]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 6. Mathematics as Set Theory / a. Mathematics is set theory
13027 Zermelo believed, and Von Neumann seemed to confirm, that numbers are sets [Zermelo, by Maddy]
14247 Sets might either represent the numbers, or be the numbers, or replace the numbers [Oliver/Smiley]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / e. Structuralism critique
9627 Different versions of set theory result in different underlying structures for numbers [Zermelo, by Brown,JR]