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David Roberts ♦
David Roberts ♦
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I was reading Mac Lane (co-discoverer of category theory)'s paper today and it was very amusing how he lamented the irrelevance of modern set theory.

From To the Greater Health of Mathematics, The Mathematical Intelligencer volume 10 (1988) pages 17–20, doi:10.1007/BF03026636:

I doubt that set theory is the ultimate foundation of real mathematics. One friend puts it more pungently: A decision via large cardinals has the same ontological force as an explanation of excessive teen-age pregnancies by the axiom: "'Handsome Martian men in UFO's are frequent flyers in our friendly skies." Maybe to a never-never land?

The paper then listed 5 important questions that logicians and set theorists were neglecting.

I was reading Mac Lane (co-discoverer of category theory)'s paper today and it was very amusing how he lamented the irrelevance of modern set theory.

From To the Greater Health of Mathematics:

I doubt that set theory is the ultimate foundation of real mathematics. One friend puts it more pungently: A decision via large cardinals has the same ontological force as an explanation of excessive teen-age pregnancies by the axiom: "'Handsome Martian men in UFO's are frequent flyers in our friendly skies." Maybe to a never-never land?

The paper then listed 5 important questions that logicians and set theorists were neglecting.

I was reading Mac Lane (co-discoverer of category theory)'s paper today and it was very amusing how he lamented the irrelevance of modern set theory.

From To the Greater Health of Mathematics, The Mathematical Intelligencer volume 10 (1988) pages 17–20, doi:10.1007/BF03026636:

I doubt that set theory is the ultimate foundation of real mathematics. One friend puts it more pungently: A decision via large cardinals has the same ontological force as an explanation of excessive teen-age pregnancies by the axiom: "'Handsome Martian men in UFO's are frequent flyers in our friendly skies." Maybe to a never-never land?

The paper then listed 5 important questions that logicians and set theorists were neglecting.

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MaudPieTheRocktorate
MaudPieTheRocktorate
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I was reading Mac Lane (co-discoverer of category theory)'s paper today and it was very amusing how he lamented the irrelevance of modern set theory.

From To the Greater Health of Mathematics:

I doubt that set theory is the ultimate foundation of real mathematics. One friend puts it more pungently: A decision via large cardinals has the same ontological force as an explanation of excessive teen-age pregnancies by the axiom: "'Handsome Martian men in UFO's are frequent flyers in our friendly skies." Maybe to a never-never land?

The paper then listed 5 important questions that logicians and set theorists were neglecting.

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