87 ideas
| 15901 | Trying to represent curves, we study arbitrary functions, leading to the ordinals, which produces set theory [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 13444 | Cantor's Theorem: for any set x, its power set P(x) has more members than x [Cantor, by Hart,WD] |
| 18098 | Cantor proved that all sets have more subsets than they have members [Cantor, by Bostock] |
| 15505 | If a set is 'a many thought of as one', beginners should protest against singleton sets [Cantor, by Lewis] |
| 10865 | The continuum is the powerset of the integers, which moves up a level [Cantor, by Clegg] |
| 10701 | Cantor showed that supposed contradictions in infinity were just a lack of clarity [Cantor, by Potter] |
| 10073 | There cannot be a set theory which is complete [Smith,P] |
| 13016 | The Axiom of Union dates from 1899, and seems fairly obvious [Cantor, by Maddy] |
| 14199 | Cantor's sets were just collections, but Dedekind's were containers [Cantor, by Oliver/Smiley] |
| 10616 | Second-order arithmetic can prove new sentences of first-order [Smith,P] |
| 10074 | A 'total function' maps every element to one element in another set [Smith,P] |
| 10612 | An argument is a 'fixed point' for a function if it is mapped back to itself [Smith,P] |
| 10605 | Two functions are the same if they have the same extension [Smith,P] |
| 10075 | A 'partial function' maps only some elements to another set [Smith,P] |
| 10076 | The 'range' of a function is the set of elements in the output set created by the function [Smith,P] |
| 10615 | The Comprehension Schema says there is a property only had by things satisfying a condition [Smith,P] |
| 10595 | A 'theorem' of a theory is a sentence derived from the axioms using the proof system [Smith,P] |
| 10602 | A 'natural deduction system' has no axioms but many rules [Smith,P] |
| 10613 | No nice theory can define truth for its own language [Smith,P] |
| 10079 | A 'bijective' function has one-to-one correspondence in both directions [Smith,P] |
| 10077 | A 'surjective' ('onto') function creates every element of the output set [Smith,P] |
| 10078 | An 'injective' ('one-to-one') function creates a distinct output element from each original [Smith,P] |
| 10070 | If everything that a theory proves is true, then it is 'sound' [Smith,P] |
| 10086 | Soundness is true axioms and a truth-preserving proof system [Smith,P] |
| 10596 | A theory is 'sound' iff every theorem is true (usually from true axioms and truth-preservation) [Smith,P] |
| 10598 | A theory is 'negation complete' if it proves all sentences or their negation [Smith,P] |
| 10597 | 'Complete' applies both to whole logics, and to theories within them [Smith,P] |
| 10069 | A theory is 'negation complete' if one of its sentences or its negation can always be proved [Smith,P] |
| 10609 | Two routes to Incompleteness: semantics of sound/expressible, or syntax of consistency/proof [Smith,P] |
| 10087 | A theory is 'decidable' if all of its sentences could be mechanically proved [Smith,P] |
| 10088 | Any consistent, axiomatized, negation-complete formal theory is decidable [Smith,P] |
| 10080 | 'Effective' means simple, unintuitive, independent, controlled, dumb, and terminating [Smith,P] |
| 10082 | There are infinite sets that are not enumerable [Cantor, by Smith,P] |
| 10081 | A set is 'enumerable' is all of its elements can result from a natural number function [Smith,P] |
| 10083 | A set is 'effectively enumerable' if a computer could eventually list every member [Smith,P] |
| 10084 | A finite set of finitely specifiable objects is always effectively enumerable (e.g. primes) [Smith,P] |
| 10085 | The set of ordered pairs of natural numbers <i,j> is effectively enumerable [Smith,P] |
| 10601 | The thorems of a nice arithmetic can be enumerated, but not the truths (so they're diffferent) [Smith,P] |
| 10600 | Being 'expressible' depends on language; being 'capture/represented' depends on axioms and proof system [Smith,P] |
| 13483 | Cantor's Paradox: the power set of the universe must be bigger than the universe, yet a subset of it [Cantor, by Hart,WD] |
| 8710 | The powerset of all the cardinal numbers is required to be greater than itself [Cantor, by Friend] |
| 15910 | Cantor named the third realm between the finite and the Absolute the 'transfinite' [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 10599 | For primes we write (x not= 1 ∧ ∀u∀v(u x v = x → (u = 1 ∨ v = 1))) [Smith,P] |
| 15905 | Cantor proved the points on a plane are in one-to-one correspondence to the points on a line [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 9983 | Cantor took the ordinal numbers to be primary [Cantor, by Tait] |
| 17798 | Cantor presented the totality of natural numbers as finite, not infinite [Cantor, by Mayberry] |
| 9971 | Cantor introduced the distinction between cardinals and ordinals [Cantor, by Tait] |
| 9892 | Cantor showed that ordinals are more basic than cardinals [Cantor, by Dummett] |
| 14136 | A cardinal is an abstraction, from the nature of a set's elements, and from their order [Cantor] |
| 15906 | Cantor tried to prove points on a line matched naturals or reals - but nothing in between [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 11015 | Cantor's diagonal argument proved you can't list all decimal numbers between 0 and 1 [Cantor, by Read] |
| 10610 | The reals contain the naturals, but the theory of reals doesn't contain the theory of naturals [Smith,P] |
| 15903 | A real is associated with an infinite set of infinite Cauchy sequences of rationals [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 18251 | Irrational numbers are the limits of Cauchy sequences of rational numbers [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 10619 | The truths of arithmetic are just true equations and their universally quantified versions [Smith,P] |
| 15902 | Irrationals and the Dedekind Cut implied infinite classes, but they seemed to have logical difficulties [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 15908 | It was Cantor's diagonal argument which revealed infinities greater than that of the real numbers [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 13464 | Cantor proposes that there won't be a potential infinity if there is no actual infinity [Cantor, by Hart,WD] |
| 10112 | The naturals won't map onto the reals, so there are different sizes of infinity [Cantor, by George/Velleman] |
| 17889 | CH: An infinite set of reals corresponds 1-1 either to the naturals or to the reals [Cantor, by Koellner] |
| 8733 | The Continuum Hypothesis says there are no sets between the natural numbers and reals [Cantor, by Shapiro] |
| 13447 | Cantor: there is no size between naturals and reals, or between a set and its power set [Cantor, by Hart,WD] |
| 10883 | Cantor's Continuum Hypothesis says there is a gap between the natural and the real numbers [Cantor, by Horsten] |
| 13528 | Continuum Hypothesis: there are no sets between N and P(N) [Cantor, by Wolf,RS] |
| 9555 | Continuum Hypothesis: no cardinal greater than aleph-null but less than cardinality of the continuum [Cantor, by Chihara] |
| 15893 | Cantor's theory concerns collections which can be counted, using the ordinals [Cantor, by Lavine] |
| 18174 | Cantor extended ordinals into the transfinite, and they can thus measure infinite cardinalities [Cantor, by Maddy] |
| 18173 | Cardinality strictly concerns one-one correspondence, to test infinite sameness of size [Cantor, by Maddy] |
| 10608 | The number of Fs is the 'successor' of the Gs if there is a single F that isn't G [Smith,P] |
| 10618 | All numbers are related to zero by the ancestral of the successor relation [Smith,P] |
| 10849 | Baby arithmetic covers addition and multiplication, but no general facts about numbers [Smith,P] |
| 10850 | Baby Arithmetic is complete, but not very expressive [Smith,P] |
| 10852 | Robinson Arithmetic (Q) is not negation complete [Smith,P] |
| 10851 | Robinson Arithmetic 'Q' has basic axioms, quantifiers and first-order logic [Smith,P] |
| 10068 | Natural numbers have zero, unique successors, unending, no circling back, and no strays [Smith,P] |
| 10603 | The logic of arithmetic must quantify over properties of numbers to handle induction [Smith,P] |
| 10604 | Incompleteness results in arithmetic from combining addition and successor with multiplication [Smith,P] |
| 10848 | Multiplication only generates incompleteness if combined with addition and successor [Smith,P] |
| 10232 | Property extensions outstrip objects, so shortage of objects caused the Caesar problem [Cantor, by Shapiro] |
| 18176 | Pure mathematics is pure set theory [Cantor] |
| 8631 | Cantor says that maths originates only by abstraction from objects [Cantor, by Frege] |
| 10617 | The 'ancestral' of a relation is a new relation which creates a long chain of the original relation [Smith,P] |
| 6029 | Whoever knows future causes knows everything that will be [Cicero] |
| 8715 | Infinities expand the bounds of the conceivable; we explore concepts to explore conceivability [Cantor, by Friend] |
| 13454 | Cantor says (vaguely) that we abstract numbers from equal sized sets [Hart,WD on Cantor] |
| 10863 | Cantor proved that three dimensions have the same number of points as one dimension [Cantor, by Clegg] |
| 13465 | Only God is absolutely infinite [Cantor, by Hart,WD] |