Set Size and the Part–Whole Principle

Review of Symbolic Logic (4):1-24 (2013)
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Abstract

Recent work has defended “Euclidean” theories of set size, in which Cantor’s Principle (two sets have equally many elements if and only if there is a one-to-one correspondence between them) is abandoned in favor of the Part-Whole Principle (if A is a proper subset of B then A is smaller than B). It has also been suggested that Gödel’s argument for the unique correctness of Cantor’s Principle is inadequate. Here we see from simple examples, not that Euclidean theories of set size are wrong, but that they must be either very weak and narrow or largely arbitrary and misleading.

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Matthew Parker
London School of Economics

Citations of this work

Infinitesimal Probabilities.Vieri Benci, Leon Horsten & Sylvia Wenmackers - 2016 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 69 (2):509-552.
Cantor, Choice, and Paradox.Nicholas DiBella - forthcoming - The Philosophical Review.
Symmetry arguments against regular probability: A reply to recent objections.Matthew W. Parker - 2019 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 9 (1):1-21.

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References found in this work

Mathematics as a science of patterns.Michael David Resnik - 1997 - New York ;: Oxford University Press.
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?Kurt Gödel - 1947 - The American Mathematical Monthly 54 (9):515--525.
What is Cantor's Continuum Problem?Kurt Gödel - 1983 - In Paul Benacerraf & Hilary Putnam (eds.), Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings (2nd Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 470-485.

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