Re: what makes it true?




>Virtually everybody, irrespective of their philosophical or religious
>views, believes that the Continuum Hypothesis is either true or false,
>even though it has not yet been proved which, and conceivably never
>will be.

Hmmmm. My take is that 'CH or (not CH)' is true (because it is provable),
but I don't think it's meaningful to claim CH is either true or false
in any absolute sense. Our 'intended model' of set theory is just too
vague. We might, perhaps, decide to adopt *another* axiom that will settle
the issue, but that's an independent thing. *smile* Whether we choose to
adopt such an axiom will be based on whether that axiom can prove 'pretty'
results, not on whether it is true in some absolute sense. We will
probably also want the new axiom to be independent of the ones we already
have.

--Dan Grubb
.



Relevant Pages

  • Re: aleph_0 1 2 but not 3
    ... surjection from aleph_2 onto that set? ... We could adopt it as an axiom, ... "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: set theory with cardinality.
    ... It's an axiom if you adopt it as an axiom (and this would probably be ... In some theories, it's not necessary to adopt ... choice, replacement, and, sometimes, regularity) that will yield the ... then define 'card' so that it always properly refers. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: third infinity !!!
    ... but that has no bearing on the fact that you better NOT ... but you can (if you don't have the axiom of ... regularity) adopt "there exists". ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Ultimate debunking of Cantors Theory
    ... >> no surjective function from it to its power set, ... > You're presenting half of the continuum hypothesis, ... Within ZFC, at least. ... You can simply define it as an axiom if you want, and then set theory will continue to ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Why float is called as float, not real?
    ... establishment by proving that the Continuum Hypothesis could not be decided. ... The notion that conventional mathematics couldn't prove or disprove concrete ... continuum hypothesis to be independent of the axiom of choice. ... rest of set theory; probably a wise choice. ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)

Quantcast