Math 2.0

Proposition

The axioms in Kelley's General Topology

Statement

The axioms and definitions in this section are, but for a few inessential details, taken from the Appendix to Kelley (1955). The explanatory remarks below are not his. The Appendix states 181 theorems and definitions, and warrants careful reading as an abbreviated exposition of axiomatic set theory by a working mathematician of the first rank. Kelley introduced his axioms gradually, as needed to develop the topics listed after each instance of Develop below.

Notations appearing below and now well-known are not defined. Peculiarities of Kelley's notation include:

  • He did not distinguish variables ranging over classes from those ranging over sets;
  • domain f and range f denote the domain and range of the function f; this peculiarity has been carefully respected below;
  • His primitive logical language includes class abstracts of the form  {x:A(x)},\ \{x : A(x)\}, "the class of all sets x satisfying A(x)."

If the scope of all quantified variables in the above axioms is restricted to sets, all axioms except III and the schema IV are ZFC axioms. IV is provable in ZFC. Hence the Kelley treatment of MK makes very clear that all that distinguishes MK from ZFC are variables ranging over proper classes as well as sets, and the Classification schema.

Further reading

  1. Wikipedia, page 2693655, revision 1350303977, Morse–Kelley set theory, section The axioms in Kelley's General Topology. adopted
About this page
TagT4B3WTQ6TH
URIm2://T4B3WTQ6TH
Kindstatement, proposition
WritingW0 stub
StatusThis copy of the site has no build data. Run m2 status T4B3WTQ6TH.
Changed4 November 2026

Markdown · JSON · Edit on GitHub

What this page needs for W1

  • edge uses out: each definition that the statement needs (0 of 1)

The writing levels say how complete the text of a page is. They do not measure its truth.

What links here

No page links to this page yet.