English

On the limits of comparing subset sizes within $\mathbb{N}$

Logic 2024-08-08 v1

Abstract

We review and compare five ways of assigning totally ordered sizes to subsets of the natural numbers: cardinality, infinite lottery logic with mirror cardinalities, natural density, generalised density, and α\alpha-numerosity. Generalised densities and α\alpha-numerosities lack uniqueness, which can be traced to intangibles: objects that can be proven to exist in ZFC while no explicit example of them can be given. As a sixth and final formalism, we consider a recent proposal by \citet{Trlifajova:2024}, which we call c-numerosity. It is fully constructive and uniquely determined, but assigns merely partially ordered numerosity values. By relating all six formalisms to each other in terms of the underlying limit operations, we get a better sense of the intrinsic limitations in determining the sizes of subsets of N\mathbb{N}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.03344,
  title  = {On the limits of comparing subset sizes within $\mathbb{N}$},
  author = {Sylvia Wenmackers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.03344},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

35 pages, 3 figures, and 2 tables. Forthcoming in the inaugural volume of the Journal for the Philosophy of Mathematics

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:05:40.063Z