Zermelo’s Axiom of Choice


Book Description

This book grew out of my interest in what is common to three disciplines: mathematics, philosophy, and history. The origins of Zermelo's Axiom of Choice, as well as the controversy that it engendered, certainly lie in that intersection. Since the time of Aristotle, mathematics has been concerned alternately with its assumptions and with the objects, such as number and space, about which those assumptions were made. In the historical context of Zermelo's Axiom, I have explored both the vagaries and the fertility of this alternating concern. Though Zermelo's research has provided the focus for this book, much of it is devoted to the problems from which his work originated and to the later developments which, directly or indirectly, he inspired. A few remarks about format are in order. In this book a publication is indicated by a date after a name; so Hilbert 1926, 178 refers to page 178 of an article written by Hilbert, published in 1926, and listed in the bibliography.




The Axiom of Choice


Book Description

Comprehensive and self-contained text examines the axiom's relative strengths and consequences, including its consistency and independence, relation to permutation models, and examples and counterexamples of its use. 1973 edition.




Gödel's Theorems and Zermelo's Axioms


Book Description

This book provides a concise and self-contained introduction to the foundations of mathematics. The first part covers the fundamental notions of mathematical logic, including logical axioms, formal proofs and the basics of model theory. Building on this, in the second and third part of the book the authors present detailed proofs of Gödel’s classical completeness and incompleteness theorems. In particular, the book includes a full proof of Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem which states that it is impossible to prove the consistency of arithmetic within its axioms. The final part is dedicated to an introduction into modern axiomatic set theory based on the Zermelo’s axioms, containing a presentation of Gödel’s constructible universe of sets. A recurring theme in the whole book consists of standard and non-standard models of several theories, such as Peano arithmetic, Presburger arithmetic and the real numbers. The book addresses undergraduate mathematics students and is suitable for a one or two semester introductory course into logic and set theory. Each chapter concludes with a list of exercises.




Quine, New Foundations, and the Philosophy of Set Theory


Book Description

Provides an accessible mathematical and philosophical account of Quine's set theory, New Foundations.




Algebra and Galois Theories


Book Description

Galois theory has such close analogies with the theory of coverings that algebraists use a geometric language to speak of field extensions, while topologists speak of "Galois coverings". This book endeavors to develop these theories in a parallel way, starting with that of coverings, which better allows the reader to make images. The authors chose a plan that emphasizes this parallelism. The intention is to allow to transfer to the algebraic framework of Galois theory the geometric intuition that one can have in the context of coverings. This book is aimed at graduate students and mathematicians curious about a non-exclusively algebraic view of Galois theory.




Handbook of Analysis and Its Foundations


Book Description

Handbook of Analysis and Its Foundations is a self-contained and unified handbook on mathematical analysis and its foundations. Intended as a self-study guide for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduatestudents in mathematics and a reference for more advanced mathematicians, this highly readable book provides broader coverage than competing texts in the area. Handbook of Analysis and Its Foundations provides an introduction to a wide range of topics, including: algebra; topology; normed spaces; integration theory; topological vector spaces; and differential equations. The author effectively demonstrates the relationships between these topics and includes a few chapters on set theory and logic to explain the lack of examples for classical pathological objects whose existence proofs are not constructive. More complete than any other book on the subject, students will find this to be an invaluable handbook. Covers some hard-to-find results including: Bessagas and Meyers converses of the Contraction Fixed Point Theorem Redefinition of subnets by Aarnes and Andenaes Ghermans characterization of topological convergences Neumanns nonlinear Closed Graph Theorem van Maarens geometry-free version of Sperners Lemma Includes a few advanced topics in functional analysis Features all areas of the foundations of analysis except geometry Combines material usually found in many different sources, making this unified treatment more convenient for the user Has its own webpage: http://math.vanderbilt.edu/







The Axiom of Choice


Book Description

This book presents an overview of the development of the Axiom of Choice since its introduction by Zermelo at the beginning of the last century. The book surveys the Axiom of Choice from three perspectives. The first, or mathematical perspective, is that of the "working mathematician". This perspective brings into view the manifold applications of the Axiom of Choice-usually in the guise of Zorn s Lemma- in a great variety of areas of mathematics. The second, foundational, perspective is that of the logician or constructive mathematician concerned with the foundational status of the Axiom of Choice. The third, topos-theoretical, perspective is that taken by the mathematician or logician investigating the role of the Axiom of Choice in topos theory. Certain topics-for instance mathematical applications of the Axiom, and its relationship with logic-are discussed in considerable detail. Others-notably the consistency and independence of the Axiom of the usual systems of set theory-are given no more than summary treatment, the justification here being that these topics have been given full expositions elsewhere. It is hoped that the book will be of interest to logicians and mathematicians, both professional and prospective.




Defending the Axioms


Book Description

Mathematics depends on proofs, and proofs must begin somewhere, from some fundamental assumptions. The axioms of set theory have long played this role, so the question of how they are properly judged is of central importance. Maddy discusses the appropriate methods for such evaluations and the philosophical backdrop that makes them appropriate.




Principia Mathematica


Book Description