Appetizers and Lessons for Mathematics and Reason   
www.whyslopes.com          ( Français
 Logic mastery is key to easing or avoiding learning difficulties in work & studies. 

Online Volumes (Book Orders)
1,  Elements of Reason. 1996
1A. Pattern Based Reason  1995
1B. Math Curriculum Notes 1996
2. Three Skills for Algebra  1995
3.
Why Slopes & More Math 1995

Site  Folders for Instructors & Adults
A. Public Policy Essays
B.  Mathematics  Education Essays  2006-7
C -Logic & Applied Math Program  
    for education,  June 22, 2008 
D. Quebec English Math Ed -  Standards to
 avoid  in course design & teacher education 
E. Help your child or teen
How TOs/ Ref.-08- 2008
1. Arithmetic Reference
2. Algebra 
3. More Algebra 
4. Geometry  
5. More Geometry
6. Calculus
7. Logics in Maths
14 Set Theory      Up ] Next ]


Pattern
Based
Reason

understanding & explaining
Reason and Math
Volume 1A
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-9697564-5-3

To reason often means to persuade someone of the need for an idea or action. That someone could be yourself. So be careful.

Learn More: If  this work  is too your liking, you may also like the foreword of Volume 1, Elements of Reason. with its description of all site volumes. 


YOU are better than YOU think. Show yourself  how:

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 For better work & study skills, read logic chapters 1 to 5  in  Three Skills for Algebra. Sooner is better. Good luck.

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 Logic Mastery
 Amazing, Amusing, Amorous,  Delicious, Delightful, Edifying, Strengthening Elixir. 
It eases work & learning difficulties. Makes the hard easier. Opens eyes. Leads to greater precision.
in reading and writing

Do not leave here without it -  Logic mastery  will develops critical thinking, improve reading and writing, and give a firmer base for work and studies at many levels. Good luck.


Explore collaborative whiteboards from groupboardtwiddla  or scriblink.


Set Theory &  Euclidean Model
for the codification of mathematics
Chapter 14, subsection

Previous: Chapter 14 Intro, Deductive And Empirical Views of Mathematics,

Philosophers and pure mathematicians are aware of the human origin and growth of mathematics. In past centuries, the rules and patterns followed in mathematics were invented and verified in imaginative ad hoc ways — the reliability of the rules and patterns discovered was sometimes unclear. In everyday speech, more can be suggested, said or imagined than proven. Similarly, in mathematics the algebraic way of writing allows more to be written than shown. This leads to statements for which proofs of truth or falseness may be of interest and a challenge.

In the middle and late 19th century, members of the then small mathematical community began to look for a more certain and more rigorous foundation for the description and manipulation of calculations. In accordance with the Euclidean Model for Reason, the ideal foundation consists of a few simple, clear principles on which the rest of knowledge could be built via rigorous, that is, firm and reliable, thought free of contradictions. But what assumptions should be made and what operations should be allowed in mathematical reasoning was not clear. Despite this, a firm, or nearly firm foundation Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory for mathematical computations, that is, arithmetic (analysis, advanced calculus) was formulated around the period 1905-1920.

The theory itself is almost an accidental outgrowth of investigation by Georg Cantor (1845-1918) and others of the set concept and what set-formation rules should be permitted. Too much freedom (too freely adopted methods for set formation) led to paradoxes.

Prior to the development of set theory, Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932) had given axioms for the whole numbers. From the whole numbers with the aid of coordinates (ordered pairs of numbers) and the idea of equivalent ordered pairs, can be successively developed the integers, rational numbers (signed fractions), the real numbers and the complex numbers. Beyond this, the representation of functions by their graphs, here sets of ordered pairs, implied mathematical operations could be represented within set theory.

With a selective assumption of rules for set formation, the set theoretic representation (codification) of ordered pairs and Peano's axioms for whole numbers become feasible, and this in turn implies a set theory basis for arithmetic with whole numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers and complex numbers.

The set theoretic foundation relied on the thought-based methods of logic, that is, on algebraically written rules and patterns, and not on arguments employing physical concepts or diagrams. The movement from a previous reliance on diagrams and physical concepts and geometry concepts or intuition represents the assumption that the most secure chains of reason are based on the rules and properties of arithmetic or sets.

The Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory provides an axiomatic (assumption and logic-based) treatment of numbers and arithmetic computations.

These axioms and their arithmetic consequences have no reliance on geometry or physical arguments or motion. This theory is built on written implication rules, direct and indirect chains of reason and the algebraic way of writing and reasoning.

The foundation of knowledge and mathematics was also a concern of Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) and Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). Ernst Zermelo lived from 1871 to 1953. Abraham Fraenkel lived from 1891 to 1965.

The development of the set theoretic approach was motivated by the need to provide an objective, thought-based organization for mathematical knowledge and arguments with the fewest possible assumptions to avoid contradictions. The set theoretic foundation gives a framework, a starting point which is more strict, sure and rigorous than in previous centuries for mathematical computations. [2]

[2] The set theoretic foundation of mathematics after arithmetic is a human creation or discovery. There are alternative axiomatic foundations (frameworks) for mathematics, but I am not familiar with their details and so cannot discuss them further.

On this set theoretic foundation, mathematical conclusions about sets and computations can be derived through long chains of deductive reason.


Chapter Subsections: [ 14 Set Theory ] 14 Before & After Set Theory in Pure Mathematics ] 14 Euclidean Model for Physics ] 14 Applied Maths and Electricity Apart from Sets ] 14  Decimals Absent From Pure Mathematics ] 14 Modern Mathematics Education ]

Next: Before and After Set Theory in Pure Mathematics

 

 

Foreword +  Chapters 1 to 24

FOREWORD
Three Remarks

1 Introduction
2 Communication
3. Elements of Reason
4 Implication Rules
5. Deception
6 Chains of Reason
7 Longer Chains
For & From Consistency
8. Language Change
9 Next Chapters
10 Responsibility
11 Accidental Patterns
12 Knowledge Islands
13 Euclidean Logic
14 Deductive & Empirical 
     Views of Mathematics

15 Objectivity
16 Origin of Rules
and Patterns
17 Objective Ways

18. Waking up
19. Symbols  & Logic
20. Pronouns or Symbols
21. Truth Tables I.
22. Truth Tables II
22. Biconditional
22. Contrapositive
23. IF-THEN table
24. Indirect Reason Again

1A Logic Postscripts
- online only

+Proof by Absurdity alias proof by contradiction
+How the demand for consistency supports the law of the excluded middle
+Reality versus or with the aid of Imagination
+Links for reason, logic and crtical thinking
+Three Remarks
+History Lost or Missing

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Caution: Site advice is approximately correct, for some circumstances, not all. Site How-TOs are logically developed, but not tried and tested. That leaves room for thought and refinement..

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