It is to be noted that the relations mentioned above are true, whether
the members are considered as individually different from one another or
whether the difference of the members is disregarded, and they are
treated as alike. This comes from the fact that every definite
co-ordination of a group can be translated into every other possible
co-ordination by exchanging two members at a time in pairs. Since in
this process one member is each time substituted for another, and a gap
therefore can never occur in its place, the group in the new arrangement
can be co-ordinated with the other group as successfully as in the old
arrangement. At the same time we learn from this that in every
co-ordination of a group with itself, independently of the arrangement
of its members, it must prove equal to itself.
By carrying out the co-ordination proof is further supplied of the
following propositions:
{ greater than }
If group A is { equal to } group B
{ smaller than }
{ greater than }
and group B is { equal to } group C
{ smaller than }
{ greater than }
then group A is { equal to } group C
{ smaller than }
From this it follows that any collection of finite groups whatsoever, of
which no one is equal to the other, can always be so arranged that the
series should begin with the smallest and end with the greatest, and
that a larger should always follow a smaller. _This order would be
unequivocal_, that is, there is only one series of the given groups
which has this peculiarity. As we shall soon see, the series of integers
is the purest type of a series so arranged.
In comparing two infinitely large groups by co-ordination, it may be
said on the one hand that never will one group be exhausted while the
other still contains members. Accordingly, it is possible to designate
two unlimited or infinite groups (or as many such groups as we please)
as _equal_ to each other. On the other hand, the statement that in both
groups each member of the one is co-ordinated with a member of the other
has no definite meaning on account of the infinitely large number of
members. _The definition of equality is therefore not completely
fulfilled_, and we must not loosely apply a principle valid for finite
groups to infinite groups. This consideration, which may assume very
different forms according to circumstances, explains the "paradoxes of
the infinite," that is, the contradictions which arise when concepts of
a definite content are applied to cases possessing in part a different
content. If we wish to attempt such an application, we must in each
instance make a special investigation as to the manner in which the
relations on their part change by the change of those contents (or
premises). As a general rule we must expect that the former relations
will not remain valid in these circumstances without any change at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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