Re: Who believes/believed that set theory is/was inconsistent?


Jim Spriggs wrote:
|25 years ago (it might have been) I think I heard John Mayberry say
that
|someone believed that set theory was inconsistent and was trying to
|prove it. Indeed, he said that the same person doubted the
consistency
|of PA. He named the person, but I cannot remember the name.
|
|To whom was Mayberry referring?
|
|The set theory may have been ZF but I don't recall precisely.

The most respected person I've heard of doubting the
consistency of PA is Ed Nelson. He expressed his doubt
in his book _Predicative Arithmetic_. He spent some time
trying to find an inconsistency.

Now, saying that someone believes that set theory is
inconsistent is a different (and more remarkable) story.
I don't believe I've ever heard that he actually believed
ZF or the like is inconsistent. I seem to remember seeing
a paper of his on set theory, although writing a paper on
a theory doesn't necessarily say anything about one's
expectations concerning its consistency.

Keith Ramsay

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Who believes/believed that set theory is/was inconsistent?
    ... >> |25 years ago I think I heard John Mayberry say ... >> |The set theory may have been ZF but I don't recall precisely. ... >> inconsistent is a different story. ... >> Keith Ramsay ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: Who believes/believed that set theory is/was inconsistent?
    ... Keith Ramsay wrote: ... > |25 years ago I think I heard John Mayberry say ... > |The set theory may have been ZF but I don't recall precisely. ... > inconsistent is a different story. ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: infinity
    ... were inconsistent, then it is only because ZF itself is inconsistent. ... Well, there can only be one proper class, ... such as von Neumann-Bernays-Godel Set Theory. ... What is the probability that A will win? ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Hans startling new set theory.
    ... All within Euclidian Geometry, of course. ... > also mean that you have evidence that ZF itself is _inconsistent_. ... there is NO PARADOX in ZF. ... Such a Set Theory IS consistent. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Hans startling new set theory.
    ... and still all the main theories are inconsistent ... > A little bit of Physics would be NO Idleness in Mathematics. ... is a THEOREM that any sufficiently powerful axiom system is unable to ... > on Set Theory as its foundation par excellence, ...
    (sci.math)