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Axiomatic set theories

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Abraham Fraenkel (אברהם הלוי פרנקל)

Abraham Fraenkel, born Adolf Abraham Halevi Fraenkel (1891–1965), was a German-born Israeli mathematician whose axiom of replacement produced the standard Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms of set theory.

Admissible set

An admissible set is a transitive set whose membership relation models Kripke–Platek set theory, a weak ZF fragment; the hereditarily finite sets are the smallest example.

Axiom of empty set

The axiom of empty set, part of Zermelo's 1908 axioms, asserts that a set with no elements exists; with extensionality it is unique and serves as zero in the von Neumann natural numbers.

Axiom of extensionality

The axiom of extensionality is the axiom of set theory asserting that two sets are equal exactly when they share the same elements, first axiomatized by Ernst Zermelo in 1908.

Axiom of infinity

The axiom of infinity is one of the axioms of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, asserting the existence of an inductive set and hence of infinite sets like the natural numbers.

Axiom of pairing

The axiom of pairing, also called the axiom of the unordered pair, is a Zermelo–Fraenkel axiom: for any two sets x and y, the set {x, y} exists.

Axiom of power set

The axiom of power set, part of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, asserts that every set has a power set containing all its subsets, grounding Cantor's theorem.

Axiom of regularity

The axiom of regularity, also called the axiom of foundation, is a Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory axiom requiring every non-empty set to have an element disjoint from it.

Axiom of union

The axiom of union, or sum-set axiom, is one of the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms: for any set x, there is a set containing exactly the members of x's members.

Axiom schema of replacement

The axiom schema of replacement, also called the axiom of replacement, states that in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory the image of a set under a definable function is a set.

Axiom schema of specification

The axiom schema of specification, also called the axiom schema of separation or subset axiom, is a Zermelo–Fraenkel axiom, introduced by Zermelo in 1908 to block Russell's paradox.

Cantor's theorem

Cantor's theorem is the set-theory result that every set is strictly smaller than the set of all its subsets, proved by Georg Cantor in 1891 using the diagonal argument.

Class (set theory)

A class in set theory, also called a proper class when it is not a set, is a collection defined by a property, such as the class of all sets.

Implementation of mathematics in set theory

The implementation of mathematics in set theory defines every mathematical object, such as numbers, functions, and ordered pairs, as a set, giving ZFC its foundational role in mathematics.

Kripke–Platek set theory

Kripke–Platek set theory (KP) is a weak axiomatic set theory introduced independently by Saul Kripke and Richard Platek in the 1960s; its transitive models are called admissible sets.

Morse–Kelley set theory

Morse–Kelley set theory (MK), also called Kelley–Morse set theory, is an axiomatic set theory with sets and classes whose class comprehension allows quantification over proper classes.

New Foundations

New Foundations, also called typed set theory, is an axiomatic set theory proposed by W. V. Quine in 1937, known for admitting a universal set.

Paradoxes of set theory

The paradoxes of set theory are contradictions from naive comprehension, including Russell's paradox (1901), Burali-Forti's (1897), and Cantor's, which forced set theory onto axiomatic foundations.

Russell's paradox

Russell's paradox is a contradiction in naive set theory, found by Bertrand Russell around 1901, concerning the set of all sets that are not members of themselves.

Set-theoretic definition of natural numbers

The set-theoretic definition of natural numbers identifies 0, 1, 2, and so on with sets, most often the von Neumann ordinals, letting arithmetic develop inside set theories like ZFC.

Tarski–Grothendieck set theory

Tarski–Grothendieck set theory is an axiomatic set theory extending Zermelo–Frænkel set theory with Tarski's axiom, introduced by Alfred Tarski in 1938, and serves as the foundation of the Mizar system for formalizing mathematics.

Von Neumann universe

The von Neumann universe, or cumulative hierarchy, is the class V of all well-founded sets, built from the empty set in transfinite stages indexed by the ordinals.

Von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory

Von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory (NBG) is a finitely axiomatizable axiomatic set theory whose objects are classes; it proves exactly the same statements about sets as ZFC.

Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory

Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF) is the standard axiom system for set theory, the foundation for modern mathematics; with the axiom of choice it is ZFC.