Georg Cantor’s Ordinals, Absolute Infinity & Transparent Proof of the Well-Ordering Theorem

Philosophy Study 9 (8) (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Georg Cantor's absolute infinity, the paradoxical Burali-Forti class Ω of all ordinals, is a monstrous non-entity for which being called a "class" is an undeserved dignity. This must be the ultimate vexation for mathematical philosophers who hold on to some residual sense of realism in set theory. By careful use of Ω, we can rescue Georg Cantor's 1899 "proof" sketch of the Well-Ordering Theorem––being generous, considering his declining health. We take the contrapositive of Cantor's suggestion and add Zermelo's choice function. This results in a concise and uncomplicated proof of the Well-Ordering Theorem.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

The mathematical import of zermelo's well-ordering theorem.Akihiro Kanamori - 1997 - Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 3 (3):281-311.
The Gödel Incompleteness Theorems (1931) by the Axiom of Choice.Vasil Penchev - 2020 - Econometrics: Mathematical Methods and Programming eJournal (Elsevier: SSRN) 13 (39):1-4.
A Negation-free Proof of Cantor's Theorem.N. Raja - 2005 - Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 46 (2):231-233.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-10-13

Downloads
945 (#22,954)

6 months
162 (#24,683)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?