Discussion board for the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking
--

 index  

Denumerability

April 22 2005 at 2:15 PM
  (Login Wisdom7491)


Response to Denumerable

 
You both take preposterous paths to finding out what "denumerable" means, and Al goes beyond preposterosity to presume to correct me. You could just ask me!

One standard treatment is Geoffrey Hunter's METALOGIC: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE METATHEORY OF STANDARD FIRST ORDER LOGIC: "The natural numbers are the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. A set is finite iff [if and only if] it has only a finite number of members; denumerable iff there is a 1-1 correspondence between it and the set of natural numbers (so a denumerable set is an infinite set); countable iff it is either finite or denumerable; uncountable iff it is neither finite nor denumerable (so an uncountable set is an infinite set)." (pp. 17-18)

Leblanc & Wisdom's DEDUCTIVE LOGIC (3rd ed.): "Sets of the smallest infinite size are often said to be of size...'aleph subzero'.... Such sets are called (in this book and generally) denumerable sets. The set {1,2,...,n,...} of the positive integers is denumerable, as is any set that is the same size as this one. So the set {0,1,2,...,n,...} of the natural numbers, or counting numbers, is also of size [aleph subzero]. Any set that is either finite or denumerable is said to be a countable set. An uncountable set, then, being of neither a finite size nor the smallest infinite size, is larger than any denumerable set." (p. 337)

"I hope that satisfies your morbid curiosity." (W. C. Fields) The reason I've used "denumerable" rather than "infinite" is that there are infinitely many different infinite cardinalities, but only one (the smallest one) that's been appropriate in the contexts where I've used "denumerable"--assuming that any curious skeptic unfamiliar with the term could look it up in a respectable sourcebook of logico-mathematical terminology, or just ask me.

 
 Respond to this message   
Responses

  1. pedantic? - Al on Apr 22, 2:37 PM
    1. You tell me clearly, unambiguously ... - Bill on Apr 22, 5:28 PM
      1. Re: You tell me clearly, unambiguously ... - Al on Apr 23, 9:00 AM
        1. I'll take a guess. - Bill on Apr 23, 12:53 PM
          1. why guess? - Al on Apr 23, 5:12 PM
            1. Answer (again) - Bill on Apr 23, 6:39 PM
              1. Re: Answer (again) - Al on Apr 23, 7:09 PM
                1. This protracted discussion - Sue on Apr 24, 9:39 AM
                  1. Thank you! - Bill on Apr 24, 12:41 PM
                    1. You're welcome - Sue on Apr 24, 1:54 PM
                2. Another try...do pay atention! - Bill on Apr 24, 2:14 PM
                  1.        explanation now grokked - Al on Apr 24, 9:49 PM
                    1. "Oh, Good Grief!" (Charlie Brown) - Bill on Apr 25, 1:49 PM
                      1. Re: "Oh, Good Grief!" (Charlie Brown) - Al on Apr 25, 3:40 PM
                        1. Re: "Oh, Good Grief!" (Charlie Brown) - Bill on Apr 25, 8:37 PM
                          1. as everyone glazed over, Lucy pulled the ball away - Al on Apr 25, 9:08 PM
                            1. Permit me to edit slightly - Bill on Apr 26, 8:35 AM
                              1. okey doke - Al on Apr 26, 12:19 PM
                3. Conspicuous typo - Bill on Apr 24, 4:36 PM
     
  2. Preposterous????? - Ray Haupt on Apr 22, 7:24 PM
    1. Yes - Bill on Apr 22, 11:18 PM
      1. No - Ray Haupt on Apr 25, 8:54 PM
        1. Dictionaries and technical terminology - Bill on Apr 27, 12:30 PM
          1. Re: Dictionaries and technical terminology - Ray haupt on Apr 27, 1:34 PM
            1. allow me to venture ... - Al on Apr 27, 2:40 PM
              1. A friend in need is a friend indeed! - Bill on Apr 27, 3:30 PM
            2. You still don't quite have it - Bill on Apr 27, 3:27 PM
              1. I am having trouble with this concept - Ray haupt on Apr 27, 4:24 PM
                1. The finite vs. the infinite - Bill on Apr 27, 5:33 PM
                  1. question - Al on Apr 28, 12:57 PM
                    1. Well, it won't be a technical sense. - Bill on Apr 28, 4:16 PM
                      1. but, does it "mean sh*t to a tree"? - Al on Apr 28, 8:31 PM
                        1. Who's wasting whose time?? - Bill on Apr 29, 11:30 AM
                          1. elaboration - Al on Apr 29, 12:51 PM
                            1. I'm working on... - Bill on Apr 29, 3:31 PM
                              1. golden showers are officially outré - Al on Apr 29, 4:08 PM
                                1. Re: Golden Showers - Bill on Apr 30, 1:00 PM
                                  1. with baited breath, barely contained ... - Al on Apr 30, 2:45 PM
                                    1. The ground rules keep shifting - Bill on Apr 30, 5:24 PM
                                      1. wow --- no they don't - Al on May 1, 10:51 AM
                                        1. OK... - Bill on May 1, 12:25 PM
     
Create your own forum at Network54
 Copyright © 1999-2008 Network54. All rights reserved.   Terms of Use   Privacy Statement  
See Phact's web page at http://www.phact.org/phact