Skip to main content

All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
63 votes
4 answers
7k views

When size matters in category theory for the working mathematician

I think a related question might be this (Set-Theoretic Issues/Categories). There are many ways in which you can avoid set theoretical paradoxes in dealing with category theory (see for instance ...
jg1896's user avatar
  • 3,318
157 votes
5 answers
28k views

What makes dependent type theory more suitable than set theory for proof assistants?

In his talk, The Future of Mathematics, Dr. Kevin Buzzard states that Lean is the only existing proof assistant suitable for formalizing all of math. In the Q&A part of the talk (at 1:00:00) he ...
MWB's user avatar
  • 1,667
50 votes
4 answers
6k views

Do set-theorists use informal set theory as their meta-theory when talking about models of ZFC?

Here, Noah Schweber writes the following: Most mathematics is not done in ZFC. Most mathematics, in fact, isn't done axiomatically at all: rather, we simply use propositions which seem "intuitively ...
user98009's user avatar
  • 509
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Which kind of foundation are mathematicians using when proving metatheorems?

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (with choice) is commonly accepted as the standard foundation of mathematics. It is a material set theory. For every two objects/sets $a,b$ one can ask whether $a=b$ or not....
user avatar