November 7
Roman Kossak,
CUNY
Petr Vopěnka’s philosophy of mathematics
Petr Vopěnka (1935-2015) was an influential mathematician and deep and original thinker. In the 1970s, he and Petr Hájek developed a system of non-Cantorial set theory, wich was first known the theory of semi-sets, and later became Alternative Set Theory (AST). The primary new concept on which the axioms of AST are based is what Vopěnka called natural infinity. In my talk I will outline some of Vopenka's thoughts on foundations of mathematics and the role of set theory in it, followed by a discussion of the axioms of AST.