Modern "Set Theory" - is it a religious belief system? | Set Theory Math Foundations 250

Modern pure mathematics suffers from a uniform disinterest in examining the foundations of the subject carefully and objectively. The current belief system that "mathematics is based on set theory" is quite misguided, and in its current form represents an abdication of our responsibility to the integrity of our discipline. We have essentially outsourced the very heart of our subject to philosophy.

In this video we set out our campaign to put modern "Set Theory", in the sense of "hierarchies upon hierarchies of infinite sets" on trial. And we give an overview of how and why we got into the current sad state where everyone believes and dissent is considered scandalous.

Cantor and Dedekind and then Hilbert are perhaps mostly responsible for the big changes pushed, against the will of most of their contemporaries, into modern pure mathematics, culminating in the axiomatic frameworks introduced by logicians in the first half of the 20th century.

Mathematics needs to find a more sensible, and logical starting position---not only to make the subject cleaner and more exciting for students and researchers, but also to make room for the new forces about to be unleashed into pure mathematics: the next generation of AI machines.

Reaction to some comments: Some people are suggesting that I rarely give details to my objections. To those who have watched a lot of my videos, this is clearly untrue: I have very clearly set out many different objections for example to real numbers earlier in this MathFoundations series. In particular, my concrete question of: what exactly is the sum pi+e+sqrt(2) ? never seems to get answered.

Video Content:
00:00 Does modern set theory really work as a logical foundation?
01:40 Modern set theory
03:41 Arithmetic with natural numbers as the mathematical foundation
05:11 How to model the continuum in mathematics
08:51 Ancient Greeks, 17th and 18th century, analysis
09:33 19th century mathematical analysis
13:11 20th century mathematical analysis

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Screenshot PDFs for my videos are available at the website http://wildegg.com. These give you a concise overview of the contents of the lectures for various Playlists: great for review, study and summary.

My research papers can be found at my Research Gate page, at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/...

My blog is at http://njwildberger.com/, where I will discuss lots of foundational issues, along with other things.

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Here are all the Insights into Mathematics Playlists:

Elementary Mathematics (K-6) Explained:    / playlist  
list=PL8403C2F0C89B1333
Year 9 Maths:    • Year9Maths  
Ancient Mathematics:    • Ancient Mathematics  
Wild West Banking:    • Wild West Banking  
Sociology and Pure Mathematics:    • Sociology and Pure Mathematics  
Old Babylonian Mathematics (with Daniel Mansfield):    / playlist  
list=PLIljB45xT85CdeBmQZ2QiCEnPQn5KQ6ov
Math History:    • MathHistory: A course in the History ...  
Wild Trig: Intro to Rational Trigonometry:    • WildTrig: Intro to Rational Trigonometry  
MathFoundations:    • Math Foundations  
Wild Linear Algebra:    • Wild Linear Algebra  
Famous Math Problems:    • Famous Math Problems  
Probability and Statistics: An Introduction:    • Probability and Statistics: an introd...  
Boole's Logic and Circuit Analysis:    • Boole's Logic and Circuit Analysis  
Universal Hyperbolic Geometry:    • Universal Hyperbolic Geometry  
Differential Geometry:    • Differential Geometry  
Algebraic Topology:    • Algebraic Topology  
Math Seminars:    • MathSeminars  
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