Paradoxes
The paradoxes of naive set theory can be explained in terms of the inconsistent assumption that "all classes are sets". With a rigorous foundation, these paradoxes instead suggest proofs that certain classes are proper. For example, Russell's paradox suggests a proof that the class of all sets which do not contain themselves is proper, and the Burali-Forti paradox suggests that the class of all ordinal numbers is proper.
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Famous quotes containing the word paradoxes:
“This is one of the paradoxes of the democratic movementthat it loves a crowd and fears the individuals who compose itthat the religion of humanity should have no faith in human beings.”
—Walter Lippmann (18891974)
“The so-called paradoxes of an author, to which a reader takes exception, often exist not in the authors book at all, but rather in the readers head.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
“Though your views are in straight antagonism to theirs, assume an identity of sentiment, assume that you are saying precisely that which all think, and in the flow of wit and love roll out your paradoxes in solid column, with not the infirmity of a doubt.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)