Are the axioms of set theory “special” in any way

foundationslogicset-theorysoft-question

Sometimes I see statements such as

Regarding what's required for a complete foundation, it's at least 99.9% correct to say set theory is enough.

I don't understand what that is supposed to mean, as this implies "we don't need more (of something)". More of what? Math obviously needs more axioms, e.g. the axioms of vector spaces.

The ZFC axioms postulate the existence of $\varnothing$ and state other things. On the other hand, the axioms of vector spaces postulate the existence of $0$ and state other things. Both sets of axioms are just sets of sentences in logic.

Aside from arguably being more widely used, what, if anything, makes the axioms of set theory special?

Best Answer

You're misunderstanding the role of the $\mathsf{ZFC}$ axioms. Their goal is to basically be a "once-and-for-all" framework for doing mathematics; rather than describe any particular mathematical object necessarily, the idea is that they should describe the whole universe of mathematics. This is a universe which, among other things, contains vector spaces - so one of the things the $\mathsf{ZFC}$ axioms should be able to do is prove things about vector spaces. By contrast this just isn't something the vector space axioms are intended to do: we don't e.g. ask "Can the vector space axioms prove Fermat's last theorem?"

The $\mathsf{ZFC}$ axioms therefore need to be considered along with general implementation strategies - ideas for how a priori non-set-theoretic mathematical concepts can be implemented in set theory. These strategies - or rather strategy really, there's never much of a trick to it, it's just really tedious - mean that we can express all of mathematics in the language of sets alone in a very real sense.

Having fixed a way of expressing mathematical statements in the pure language of set theory, we now want to actually prove/disprove them. The success of $\mathsf{ZFC}$ is measured in large part by its ability to prove things about other mathematical objects, implemented according to the previously-mentioned strategies, which we can prove in "naive mathematics" already. This is what the quote is referring to: while there are indeed mathematical questions which the $\mathsf{ZFC}$ axioms do not resolve, they are few and far between (outside of mathematical logic anyways :P).