Related papers: Is set theory indispensable?
Discussions surrounding the nature of the infinite in mathematics have been underway for two millennia. Mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians have all taken part. The basic question has been whether the infinite exists only in…
Church's Higher Order Logic is a basis for influential proof assistants -- HOL and PVS. Church's logic has a simple set-theoretic semantics, making it trustworthy and extensible. We factor HOL into a constructive core plus axioms of…
We consider mainly the following version of set theory:"ZF + DC and for every $\lambda,\lambda^{\aleph_0}$ is well ordered", our thesis is that this is a reasonable set theory, e.g. much can be said. In particular, we prove that for a…
In this paper we provide a detailed construction of an equivalence between the category of Lawvere theories and the category of relative monads on the obvious functor $Jf:F\rightarrow Sets$ where $F$ is the category with the set of objects…
We review the philosophical framework of mathematical conceptualism as an alternative to set-theoretic foundations and show how mainstream mathematics can be developed on this basis. The paper includes an explicit axiomatization of the…
We propose a natural theory SO axiomatizing the class of sets of ordinals in a model of ZFC set theory. Both theories possess equal logical strength. Constructibility theory in SO corresponds to a natural recursion theory on ordinals.
Let m>2 be an integer. We show that ZF + "For every integer n, Every countable family of non-empty sets of cardinality at most n has an infinite partial choice function" is not strong enough to prove that every countable set of m-element…
I argue that, contrary to the standard view, one cannot understand the structure and nature of our knowledge in physics without an analysis of the way that observers (and, more generally, measuring instruments and experimental arrangements)…
The concept of Central sets, introduced by Furstenberg through the framework of topological dynamics, has played a pivotal role in combinatorial number theory. Furstenberg's Central Sets Theorem highlighted their rich combinatorial…
It is shown that the pillars of transfinite set theory, namely the uncountability proofs, do not hold. (1) Cantor's first proof of the uncountability of the set of all real numbers does not apply to the set of irrational numbers alone, and,…
A central theme in set theory is to find universes with extreme, well-understood behaviour. The case we are interested in is assuming GCH and has a strong forcing axiom of higher order than usual. Instead of "for every suitable forcing…
Structural proof theory is praised for being a symbolic approach to reasoning and proofs, in which one can define schemas for reasoning steps and manipulate proofs as a mathematical structure. For this to be possible, proof systems must be…
The proof of the relative consistency of the axiom of choice has been mechanized using Isabelle/ZF. The proof builds upon a previous mechanization of the reflection theorem. The heavy reliance on metatheory in the original proof makes the…
Miller's 1937 splitting theorem was proved for pairs of cardinals $(\n,\rho)$ in which $n$ is finite and $\rho$ is infinite. An extension of Miller's theorem is proved here in ZFC for pairs of cardinals $(\nu,\rho)$ in which $\nu$ is…
We start by presenting a theory of finite sets using the approach which is essentially that taken by Whitehead and Russell in Principia Mathematica}, and which does not involve the natural numbers (or any other infinite set). This theory is…
The famous G\"odel incompleteness theorem says that for every sufficiently rich formal theory (containing formal arithmetic in some natural sense) there exist true unprovable statements. Such statements would be natural candidates for being…
In light of the celebrated theorem of Vop\v{e}nka (1972), proving in ZFC that every set is generic over HOD, it is natural to inquire whether the set-theoretic universe $V$ must be a class-forcing extension of HOD by some possibly…
We present a new fragment of axiomatic set theory for pure sets and for the iteration of power sets within given transitive sets. It turns out that this formal system admits an interesting hierarchy of models with true membership relation…
Universality is one of the most important ideas in computability theory. There are various criteria of simplicity for universal Turing machines. Probably the most popular one is to count the number of states/symbols. This criterion is more…
The usual definition of the set of constructible reals is $\Sigma ^1_2$. This set can have a simpler definition if, for example, it is countable or if every real is constructible. H. Friedman asked if the set of constructible reals can be…