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 Before & After Set Theory in Pure Mathematics      Back ] 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.


Before and After Set Theory
in pure Mathematics
Chapter 14, subsection

Previous: Set Theory & an Euclidean Model for mathematics

Before the advent of the Zermelo-Fraenkel basis for arithmetic, mathematics could be viewed as two subjects: geometry and algebra. Algebraic thought included arithmetic and computations of all forms. Since the advent, mathematics may be regarded as three subjects: geometry, algebra and analysis. The modern subject of algebra has been restricted to a study of the form of computation and of what kind of objects, if any, will satisfy a given set of rules for computation. The modern subject of analysis examines numerical computation within the set theoretic framework for arithmetic.

The Spread of Set-Theory

In universities, the set theoretic foundation for mathematics went (see [3]) from being a curiosity in the 1920s to an essential part in the 1950s – more and more areas of mathematics were viewed from a set theoretic view. And in the 1950s and 1960s, this approach spread from the universities into high schools.

[3] According to the article Development of Modern Mathematics, an overview, by R. L. Wilder, in the book Historical Topics for the Mathematics Classroom, edited and written by J. K. Baumgart et al. The book was published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1969, second edition 1989, 1906 Association Drive, Reston, Virginia, USA 22091.

Godel's Disappointment

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with its rules (assumptions, restrictions) on what sets could be formed from others prevented the appearance of paradoxes, those known at the time of its construction. From the 1920s to the present (1995) no further paradoxes or contradictions have found. Thus the theory has stood an empirical test of time for over seventy years. But this does not guarantee in a thought-based manner that paradoxes or contradictions within this set theory framework will not be found.

The reliability and logical self-consistency (absence of contradictory, mutually exclusive results) of a framework for mathematics was one of the guiding problems for the mathematical sciences posed by David Hilbert (1862-1943) at the turn of the 20th century. But in the 1930s, Kurt Godel showed that a proof of the consistency was not possible in the sense wanted. In a rule-based system for mathematics large enough to include counting with the whole numbers, the consistency of the system could not be deduced, that is, concluded from a chain of implications. Consistency, the absence of contradictory, mutually exclusive assertions, could not be proven within such a system.

The foregoing represents an approximate phrasing of Godel's results.

Godel's conclusion represents a loss for the Euclidean ideal for reasoning with certainty from first principles: axioms or assumptions. Our assertion that certain axioms or assumptions could be taken as self-evident was not enough to guarantee consistency in any framework for mathematic rich enough to include the whole numbers. This implies perhaps that the Zermelo-Fraenkel set theoretic framework for mathematics is presently just a very refined branch of empirical art or science. Mathematics, the queen of science, is thus but an aloof, yet very thoughtful, commoner.


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: Euclidean Model for Physics, Axiomatic Foundation Unlikely

 

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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