Full Idea
I intend to show how the entire theory created by Cantor and Dedekind can be reduced to a few definitions and seven principles, or axioms, which appear to be mutually independent.
Gist of Idea
Set theory can be reduced to a few definitions and seven independent axioms
Source
Ernst Zermelo (Investigations in the Foundations of Set Theory I [1908], Intro)
Book Reference
'From Frege to Gödel 1879-1931', ed/tr. Heijenoort,Jean van [Harvard 1967], p.200
A Reaction
The number of axioms crept up to nine or ten in subsequent years. The point of axioms is maximum reduction and independence from one another. He says nothing about self-evidence (though Boolos claimed a degree of that).