English

Cardinality in a paraconsistent and paracomplete set theory

Logic 2026-04-09 v1

Abstract

This paper develops a rich theory of cardinality in the paraconsistent and paracomplete set theory BZFC\mathrm{BZFC}, where sets can be inconsistent (AA such that ``xAx\in A'' is both true and false for some xx) or incomplete (AA such that ``xAx\in A'' is neither true nor false for some xx). We carefully analyze what it means for two potentially incomplete or inconsistent sets to have ``the same size'', construct the corresponding cardinal numbers, and develop the basic theory of cardinal arithmetic. A surprising result is that the cardinality of any set can be expressed as a linear combination of three fundamental cardinal numbers with classical cardinals as coefficients. In that sense, our cardinal numbers form a three-dimensional space over the usual cardinals, much like how the complex numbers form a two-dimensional space over the reals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.07094,
  title  = {Cardinality in a paraconsistent and paracomplete set theory},
  author = {Hrafn Valtýr Oddsson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.07094},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

24 pages, 12 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:59:20.114Z