Is the Continuum Hypothesis a definite mathematical problem?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explain why I believe that the Continuum Hypothesis (CH) is not a definite mathematical problem. My reason for that is that the concept of arbitrary set essential to its formulation is vague or underdetermined and there is no way to sharpen it without violating what it is supposed to be about. In addition, there is considerable circumstantial evidence to support the view that CH is not definite

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,897

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

Is Cantor's continuum problem inherently vague?Kai Hauser - 2002 - Philosophia Mathematica 10 (3):257-285.
Set theory and the continuum hypothesis.Paul J. Cohen - 1966 - New York,: W. A. Benjamin.
Kreisel, the continuum hypothesis and second order set theory.Thomas Weston - 1976 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 5 (2):281 - 298.
Independence and justification in mathematics.Krzysztof Wójtowicz - 2006 - Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 91 (1):349-373.
The consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory.Kurt Gödel - 1940 - Princeton university press;: Princeton University Press;. Edited by George William Brown.
Reference and definite descriptions.Keith S. Donnellan - 1966 - Philosophical Review 75 (3):281-304.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-09-26

Downloads
266 (#76,203)

6 months
20 (#130,571)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Maddy On The Multiverse.Claudio Ternullo - 2019 - In Deniz Sarikaya, Deborah Kant & Stefania Centrone (eds.), Reflections on the Foundations of Mathematics. Berlin: Springer Verlag. pp. 43-78.
An indeterminate universe of sets.Chris Scambler - 2020 - Synthese 197 (2):545-573.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

What numbers could not be.Paul Benacerraf - 1965 - Philosophical Review 74 (1):47-73.
Mathematics as a science of patterns.Michael David Resnik - 1997 - New York ;: Oxford University Press.
Naturalism in mathematics.Penelope Maddy - 1997 - New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 36 references / Add more references