Questions tagged [set-theory]

For questions about the mathematical branch that is based on the study of sets, i.e. collections of objects.

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2 votes
0 answers
145 views

Zermelo's or Fraenkel's early consideration of something equivalent to countable Replacement

I have now claimed a few times on the internet, based on something (sensible!) I read, that at some point in the 1920s, that Zermelo at one point considered as a set theoretic axiom (schema) something ...
1 vote
1 answer
123 views

What problem was Borel trying to solve?

I may be mistaken but I understood that Borel developed his sigma algebra before Lebesgue developed his measure. If correct, then Borel can't have been trying to find a collection of sets in $\mathbb{...
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4 votes
1 answer
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Did Cantor coin the terms countable and uncountable? If not, who did?

I just assumed that he did since we owe the proof that $\mathbb{R}$ is uncountable to him, but a search of my favorite source for answering such questions -- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/...
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1 vote
0 answers
77 views

The definition of 'countable' and 'finite' set

I have an equivalent definition of finite and countable sets that seems 'less' based on set theory than the usual definitions. I am wondering if anyone has encountered these definitions anywhere, esp....
1 vote
0 answers
134 views

where does trace $\sigma$-algebra come from

I came across the term trace $\sigma$-algebra in the context of conditional probability. Does anyone know where it comes from? i found a reference to trace of a matrix here: https://mathshistory.st-...
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0 votes
1 answer
138 views

When did Zermelo and Fraenkel publish their axioms?

I have googled the heck out of this but cannot find a reference to the year Z&F published their axioms. I'd expected to see an article reference but none that I could find.
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6 votes
1 answer
340 views

Definition of ordinal multiplication

The ordinal multiplication $\cdot$ can be defined recursively via ordinal addition $+$ for any ordinal $\alpha$ as follows: $\alpha\cdot 0=0$. $\alpha\cdot (\beta+1)=\alpha\cdot \beta+\alpha$ for any ...
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10 votes
1 answer
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Origin of Q for the set of rational numbers?

It seems many sources$^1$ attribute the use of the letter "Q" to represent the rationals to the N. Bourbaki group (in the 1930's); however, the Wikipedia entry on rational numbers claims ...
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8 votes
1 answer
258 views

Origin / first use of $\mathbb{Z}$ (blackboard bold Z)?

I'm aware that the choice of "Z" comes from German zahlen (for "numbers"); however, I was curious to know when the dedicated font, which I believe is called "blackboard bold&...
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2 votes
0 answers
103 views

Where can I find the actual first order formulation of ZFC Axioms?

I'm currently writing my thesis about ZFC origins, and I need a source from where to know who gives the actual first order formulation of ZFC. I got to the point where Bernays writes about it and ...
11 votes
4 answers
2k views

How was Fourier analysis important to the development of set theory?

I recently read the following quote (unfortunately, I copied it down without attribution): You may be surprised to know that Fourier analysis played a role in the early development of set theory. In ...
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4 votes
0 answers
131 views

What role has Whitehead's Conjecture played in the thinking on the plurality of set theories?

I am curious about the history of the Whitehead's Conjecture, as this was the first natural mathematical statement, in the sense that mathematicians were actually interested in the answer, that was ...
3 votes
1 answer
498 views

How did ZFC become the standard foundations of mathematics?

I would like to hear about the historical and technical reasons for why Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of Choice became the dominant standard for the foundations of mathematics. The system ...
2 votes
2 answers
256 views

In which article/book chapter did Cantor, Hilbert, and Poincaré formally define or directly discusse the term “potential infinity”?

Some media sources say that "Cantor claimed that there would only be potential infinity, not actual infinity" In addition, the following link claims that Hilbert, Poincaré, and Cantor were ...
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0 votes
0 answers
346 views

Has Cantor's irregular enumeration of rationals ever been discussed?

Enumeration of all positive fractions recently has gained renewed interest (see the list below). By translation invariance we can be sure that in all intervals (n, n+1] of the real axis, there are the ...
4 votes
0 answers
86 views

Kreisel on "set" as a coherent idea

In his paper Two notes on the foundations of set-theory, Kreisel begins: Recall that, naively, sets present themselves in a number of distinct contexts. [...] One may therefore doubt whether any ...
6 votes
1 answer
164 views

Were $\sigma$-algebras defined for probability?

If you want a crash course in $\sigma$-algebras and probability spaces, you should absolutely read this amazing answer by @Sycorax on Cross Validated. Sycorax says something in particular though that ...
10 votes
1 answer
269 views

Why were equivalence classes named classes rather than sets?

If $R\subseteq A\times A$ is an equivalence relation (i.e., a relation that is reflexive on $A$, symmetric, and transitive), then for each element $x\in A$, the subset $[x]_R=\{y\in A: \langle x,y\...
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1 vote
1 answer
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History of exponential notation for the set of functions between two sets

It's well-known that if $A$ and $B$ are two sets, then the set of all functions from $A$ to $B$ can be denoted by $B^A$: explanations of this particular notation can be found in many places: https://...
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11 votes
1 answer
999 views

How many important logicians did NOT receive doctoral degrees?

I can think of three. Saul Kripke quite famously could only be begrudged to finish his undergraduate degree at Harvard before being hired as a full professor. Donald Martin (the set theorist of Martin'...
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8 votes
1 answer
325 views

What were the not-so-convincing reasons for using the word "power" for power sets?

A footnote of Enderton's Elements of Set Theory (1977, page 4) for the definition of power set states that the reasons for using the word "power" in this context are not very convincing, but the ...
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3 votes
0 answers
153 views

Translations of "Sur le théorème de Zorn"?

Are there any translations of the following into English, German, or Russian? Nicolas Bourbaki, Sur le théorème de Zorn, Archiv der Mathematik, Volume 2, pages 434–437, November 1949. Any help is ...
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10 votes
1 answer
310 views

Was the continuum hypothesis commonly believed to be independent before Cohen's proof?

Someone drew my attention to the Russian translation of Rademacher and Toeplitz's Von Zahlen und Figuren (The Enjoyment of Mathematics in the English translation). In the chapter on set theory the ...
5 votes
3 answers
692 views

What brought about the need for real analysis and formal logic in recent years?

I can't seem to find a clear, definitive, non-circular answer on this. For centuries and centuries, we've been doing mathematics in one form or another, be it geometry and pictures, or inventing ...
0 votes
1 answer
114 views

Lengths as equivalence classes

From Wikipedia on cardinal numbers: The oldest definition of the cardinality of a set $X$ (implicit in Cantor and explicit in Frege and Principia Mathematica) is as the class $[X]$ of all sets ...
2 votes
1 answer
267 views

Cantor's fortune

Wiki says that his transfinite numbers met opposition: Henri Poincaré referred to his ideas as a "grave disease" infecting the discipline of mathematics, and Leopold Kronecker's public ...
4 votes
1 answer
364 views

Can we identify Paul Benacerraf in these photos

This question is about Paul Benacerraf, who worked on the philosophy of mathematics, and wrote the 1965 essay What numbers could not be (see: Benacerraf's identification problem). He was at Princeton ...
2 votes
1 answer
163 views

Who decided on the convention for ordinal multiplication?

Ordinal multiplication has always seemed backwards to me. $\alpha \times \beta$ is defined as the concatenation of $\beta$ copies of $\alpha$, not the other way 'round as one might expect. Does this ...
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7 votes
1 answer
303 views

Was Paul Cohen a student or assistant of Gödel?

In The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, a biography about Paul Erdős, by Paul Hoffman, the author claims that Paul Cohen was "Gödel's former assistant" (p 225). However, I can't find any other sources ...
8 votes
1 answer
269 views

Who was (were) the first mathematician(s) who did not doubt the empty set?

Today there is no doubt that the empty set for the whole of mathematics is as reasonable and useful as zero for arithmetic. This however was not always the case, and surprisingly even Zermelo, who ...
4 votes
2 answers
490 views

When did set theory throw off theology?

"The general set theory [...] definitely belongs to metaphysics. You can easily convince yourself when examining the categories of cardinal numbers and the order type, these basic notions of set ...
0 votes
2 answers
160 views

Did Zermelo in 1914 miss the fact that there are only countably many finite strings?

Did Zermelo in 1914 miss the fact, known in 1905 already, that there are only countably many finite strings, for instance polynomials with defined parameters? He wrote: Every real or complex number $\...
-2 votes
1 answer
221 views

Endorsers of the method of well-ordering reported by Hausdorff?

In the course of preparing a lecture for graduate students about errors of early set theory I have come across this nice example reported by Hausdorff which violates Peano's successor axiom but ...
3 votes
0 answers
156 views

Details of Hilbert's proof of the continuum hypothesis [closed]

Toward the end of his paper on the infinite Hilbert sketched his proof of the continuum hypothesis. [D. Hilbert: "Über das Unendliche", Mathematische Annalen 95 (1925)] Can experts on Hilbert give ...
4 votes
1 answer
356 views

Was Hilbert ambivalent about set theory?

There is the well-known quote of Hilbert: "No one shall drive us from the paradise which Cantor has created for us." [D. Hilbert: "Über das Unendliche", Mathematische Annalen 95 (...
6 votes
4 answers
611 views

Is there a formal distinction between potential and actual infinities?

In modern set theory the difference between actual infinity and potential infinity is often not understood or even denied. Some decades back however mathematicians like Hilbert or Poincaré, let alone ...
5 votes
1 answer
363 views

Why was Kronecker dissatisfied with Cantor's submitted paper?

It is said here that In 1874 Cantor published an article in Crelle's Journal which marks the birth of set theory. A follow-up paper was submitted by Cantor to Crelle's Journal in 1878 but already set ...
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2 votes
0 answers
238 views

Set Theory, onto and into their relation to spoken language definitions

Does anyone know how the definitions for onto and into map to the spoken language definitions of the words? I compared the Bourbaki definitions to these words and have a suspicion that the German ...
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2 votes
1 answer
173 views

Did Cantor knew the work of Paul du Bois-Reymond (the original inventor of the diagonal argument proof method in mathematics)? [duplicate]

In the wikipedia page about Cantor's diagonal argument, it says: Historically, the diagonal argument first appeared in the work of Paul du Bois-Reymond in 1875. However, the diagonal argument is ...
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4 votes
0 answers
216 views

What was Zermelo's _reception_ of von Neumann's definition of ordinal numbers?

Redactional note Like suggested by one of this question's (or so I understand the meta.discussion), this question should be given some too-many-subquestions-redacting, in particular since the easiest ...
2 votes
1 answer
158 views

Where was it first proved that the cardinality of the continuum equals the cardinality of the power set of the naturals?

I can find many resources regarding Cantor's proof of the uncountability of the continuum. But was he the first to prove that $\mathfrak{c} = | \mathfrak{P} (\mathbf{N})|$? Which paper?
13 votes
0 answers
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Did Kronecker say that set theory is not mathematics?

I have frequently come across Kronecker's statement about set theory: I don't know what predominates in Cantor's theory - philosophy or theology, but I am sure that there is no mathematics there. It ...
3 votes
1 answer
245 views

Where did Borel stress that $\mathbb{Q}$ being effectively enumerable by $\mathbb{N}$ is not about its size?

In the book 'Practical Foundations of Mathematics' (Paul Taylor), available online, one reads: As Emile Borel stressed in 1908, the important observation about $\mathbb{Q}$ [that there is a ...
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6 votes
2 answers
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Did Poincaré say that set theory is a disease?

This question has been discussed on several sites including MathOverflow but with not definite result. Presumely HSE is best suited. Jeremy Gray denies that Poincare said, "Later generations will ...
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-2 votes
1 answer
155 views

Has Bolzano's opinion about the irrelevance of an infinite bijection ever found supporters?

From the only reason that two sets, $A$ and $B$, are corresponding to each other by the fact that for every part $a$ being in $A$ there is a part $b$ being in $B$ such that all pairs $(a + b)$ formed ...
9 votes
1 answer
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What are the origins of Galileo's paradox?

Galileo's paradox is the observation that the natural numbers can be put into one to one correspondence with the square numbers, showing that an infinite set can be bijected to a proper subset of ...
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2 votes
1 answer
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What were the inconsistent classes identified by Ernst Schröder?

From G.H.Moore’s Zermelo’s Axiom of Choice : In 1890 Schröder had already introduced a notion of consistent and inconsistent classes in his Algebra der Logik, well before the modern discovery of ...
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11 votes
1 answer
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What were the earliest “unpleasant” consequences of the Axiom of Choice (and its negation) to be deduced?

I read that Zermelo formulated AC in 1904 in order to formally prove the well-ordering theorem. Vitali’s 1905 proof of the existence of a non-measurable set of real numbers appears to the first “...
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4 votes
2 answers
558 views

How did Russell arrive at the paradox demonstrating the inconsistency of naive set theory?

As described here, we know that: In the foundations of mathematics, Russell's paradox (also known as Russell's antinomy), discovered by Bertrand Russell in 1901, showed that some attempted ...
4 votes
2 answers
388 views

Did Bolzano conclude that $| \mathbb R | \ne | \mathbb N|$?

Boyer's History of Mathematics includes a brief account of Bolzano's contributions in the chapter on Gauss and Cauchy. Building on Galileo's "paradox" on the one-to-one correspondence between ...
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