All Questions
10 questions
72
votes
13
answers
19k
views
Logic in mathematics and philosophy
What are the relations between logic as an area of (modern) philosophy and mathematical logic.
The world "modern" refers to 20th century and later, and I am curious mainly about the second ...
- 24.7k
70
votes
6
answers
8k
views
The logic of Buddha: a formal approach
Buddhist logic is a branch of Indian logic (see also Nyaya), one of the three original traditions of logic, alongside the Greek and the Chinese logic. It seems Buddha himself used some of the features ...
53
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Silver's approach to the inconsistency of $\mathrm{ZFC}$
As all probably know, Jack Silver passed away about one month ago. The announcement released, with delay, by European Set Theory Society includes a quote by Solovay about his belief on inconsistency ...
- 2,381
45
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Hilbert's alleged proof of the Continuum Hypothesis in "On the Infinite"
As is known, Hilbert attempted a proof sketch of the Continuum Hypothesis in the latter part of his paper, "On the Infinite". It is also known that it is false.
Has there ever been a published ...
- 6,132
40
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Were Bourbaki committed to set-theoretical reductionism?
A set-theoretical reductionist holds that sets are the only abstract objects, and that (e.g.) numbers are identical to sets. (Which sets? A reductionist is a relativist if she is (e.g.) indifferent ...
- 1,257
35
votes
8
answers
7k
views
Why not adopt the constructibility axiom $V=L$?
Gödelian incompleteness seems to ruin the idea of mathematics offering absolute certainty and objectivity. But Gödel‘s proof gives examples of independent statements that are often remarked as having ...
13
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Is there any correspondence between Gödel and Kreisel that supports Kreisel's observation that Gödel changed his mind about his 1938 set theory note?
At a conference in 1965 there were some interesting comments made by Kreisel and Mostowski asserting that Gödel later changed his mind regarding his1938 note on his set theory results (see Problems in ...
- 481
12
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Has Dedekind's proof of existence of infinite sets been analyzed by historians?
This pdf by David Joyce notes that in paragraph 66 of his famous essay, Dedekind claims to prove the existence of an infinite set.
The proof exploits the assumption that there exists a set $S$ of all ...
- 16.6k
5
votes
0
answers
947
views
Why are real-valued measurable cardinals never explicitly mentioned in Gödel's "What is Cantor's Continuum Problem"?
It is a matter of mathematical folklore that Gödel "entertained the idea of so called stronger axioms of infinity deciding $CH$...." (this quote from Radek Honzik's paper, "Large ...
- 6,132
3
votes
0
answers
342
views
A Question Regarding Boolean-valued Models
What were the intuitions motivating the creation (or discovery, if you will) of Boolean-valued models? I have searched for the Scott-Solovay paper on the subject, but to no avail. There also seems to ...
- 6,132