Universe (mathematics) - in A Specific Context

In A Specific Context

Perhaps the simplest version is that any set can be a universe, so long as the object of study is confined to that particular set. If the object of study is formed by the real numbers, then the real line R, which is the real number set, could be the universe under consideration. Implicitly, this is the universe that Georg Cantor was using when he first developed modern naive set theory and cardinality in the 1870s and 1880s in applications to real analysis. The only sets that Cantor was originally interested in were subsets of R.

This concept of a universe is reflected in the use of Venn diagrams. In a Venn diagram, the action traditionally takes place inside a large rectangle that represents the universe U. One generally says that sets are represented by circles; but these sets can only be subsets of U. The complement of a set A is then given by that portion of the rectangle outside of A's circle. Strictly speaking, this is the relative complement U \ A of A relative to U; but in a context where U is the universe, it can be regarded as the absolute complement AC of A. Similarly, there is a notion of the nullary intersection, that is the intersection of zero sets (meaning no sets, not null sets). Without a universe, the nullary intersection would be the set of absolutely everything, which is generally regarded as impossible; but with the universe in mind, the nullary intersection can be treated as the set of everything under consideration, which is simply U.

These conventions are quite useful in the algebraic approach to basic set theory, based on Boolean lattices. Except in some non-standard forms of axiomatic set theory (such as New Foundations), the class of all sets is not a Boolean lattice (it is only a relatively complemented lattice). In contrast, the class of all subsets of U, called the power set of U, is a Boolean lattice. The absolute complement described above is the complement operation in the Boolean lattice; and U, as the nullary intersection, serves as the top element (or nullary meet) in the Boolean lattice. Then De Morgan's laws, which deal with complements of meets and joins (which are unions in set theory) apply, and apply even to the nullary meet and the nullary join (which is the empty set).