Introduction to Mathematical PhilosophyRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
Russell, Bertrand
Mathematics -- Philosophy
Thus progressions as we have defined them have the five
formal properties from which Peano deduces arithmetic. It is
easy to show that two progessions are "similar" in the sense
defined for similarity of relations in Chapter VI. We can, of
course, derive a relation which is serial from the one-one relation
by which we define a progression: the method used is that
explained in Chapter IV., and the relation is that of a term to
a member of its proper posterity with respect to the original
one-one relation.
Two transitive asymmetrical relations which generate progressions
are similar, for the same reasons for which the corresponding
one-one relations are similar. The class of all such
transitive generators of progressions is a "serial number" in
the sense of Chapter VI.; it is in fact the smallest of infinite
serial numbers, the number to which Cantor has given the name ,
by which he has made it famous.
But we are concerned, for the moment, with cardinal numbers.
Since two progressions are similar relations, it follows that their
domains (or their fields, which are the same as their domains)
are similar classes. The domains of progressions form a cardinal
number, since every class which is similar to the domain of a
progression is easily shown to be itself the domain of a progression.
This cardinal number is the smallest of the infinite cardinal
numbers; it is the one to which Cantor has appropriated the
Hebrew Aleph with the suffix 0, to distinguish it from larger
infinite cardinals, which have other suffixes. Thus the name of
the smallest of infinite cardinals is .
To say that a class has terms is the same thing as to say
that it is a member of , and this is the same thing as to say
[Pg 83]
that the members of the class can be arranged in a progression.
It is obvious that any progression remains a progression if we
omit a finite number of terms from it, or every other term, or
all except every tenth term or every hundredth term. These
methods of thinning out a progression do not make it cease to
be a progression, and therefore do not diminish the number of
its terms, which remains . In fact, any selection from a progression
is a progression if it has no last term, however sparsely
it may be distributed. Take (say) inductive numbers of the form ,
or . Such numbers grow very rare in the higher parts
of the number series, and yet there are just as many of them as
there are inductive numbers altogether, namely, .
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