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Single Idea 15919

[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 5. Conceptions of Set / c. Logical sets ]

Full Idea

The Peano-Russell notion of class is the 'logical' notion, where each collection is associated with some kind of definition or rule that characterises the members of the collection.

Gist of Idea

The 'logical' notion of class has some kind of definition or rule to characterise the class

Source

Shaughan Lavine (Understanding the Infinite [1994], IV.1)

Book Ref

Lavine,Shaughan: 'Understanding the Infinite' [Harvard 1994], p.63


The 33 ideas from 'Understanding the Infinite'

Cauchy gave a necessary condition for the convergence of a sequence [Lavine]
The controversy was not about the Axiom of Choice, but about functions as arbitrary, or given by rules [Lavine]
Replacement was immediately accepted, despite having very few implications [Lavine]
The iterative conception of set wasn't suggested until 1947 [Lavine]
The two sides of the Cut are, roughly, the bounding commensurable ratios [Lavine]
Mathematics is nowadays (thanks to set theory) regarded as the study of structure, not of quantity [Lavine]
'Aleph-0' is cardinality of the naturals, 'aleph-1' the next cardinal, 'aleph-ω' the ω-th cardinal [Lavine]
Ordinals are basic to Cantor's transfinite, to count the sets [Lavine]
Counting results in well-ordering, and well-ordering makes counting possible [Lavine]
A collection is 'well-ordered' if there is a least element, and all of its successors can be identified [Lavine]
An 'upper bound' is the greatest member of a subset; there may be several of these, so there is a 'least' one [Lavine]
Paradox: the class of all ordinals is well-ordered, so must have an ordinal as type - giving a bigger ordinal [Lavine]
Paradox: there is no largest cardinal, but the class of everything seems to be the largest [Lavine]
The 'logical' notion of class has some kind of definition or rule to characterise the class [Lavine]
For the real numbers to form a set, we need the Continuum Hypothesis to be true [Lavine]
Collections of things can't be too big, but collections by a rule seem unlimited in size [Lavine]
Pure collections of things obey Choice, but collections defined by a rule may not [Lavine]
Second-order logic presupposes a set of relations already fixed by the first-order domain [Lavine]
Set theory will found all of mathematics - except for the notion of proof [Lavine]
Intuitionism rejects set-theory to found mathematics [Lavine]
Foundation says descending chains are of finite length, blocking circularity, or ungrounded sets [Lavine]
The iterative conception needs the Axiom of Infinity, to show how far we can iterate [Lavine]
The iterative conception doesn't unify the axioms, and has had little impact on mathematical proofs [Lavine]
Limitation of Size: if it's the same size as a set, it's a set; it uses Replacement [Lavine]
Mathematical proof by contradiction needs the law of excluded middle [Lavine]
The Power Set is just the collection of functions from one collection to another [Lavine]
Modern mathematics works up to isomorphism, and doesn't care what things 'really are' [Lavine]
The intuitionist endorses only the potential infinite [Lavine]
Those who reject infinite collections also want to reject the Axiom of Choice [Lavine]
Every rational number, unlike every natural number, is divisible by some other number [Lavine]
Second-order set theory just adds a version of Replacement that quantifies over functions [Lavine]
The theory of infinity must rest on our inability to distinguish between very large sizes [Lavine]
The infinite is extrapolation from the experience of indefinitely large size [Lavine]