The Axiom Of Choice

AC, the axiom of choice, because of its non-constructive character, is the most controversial mathematical axiom. It is shunned by some, used indiscriminately by others. This treatise shows paradigmatically that disasters happen without AC and they happen with AC. Illuminating examples are drawn from diverse areas of mathematics, particularly from general topology, but also from algebra, order theory, elementary analysis, measure theory, game theory, and graph theory.

Comprehensive and self-contained text examines the axiom's relative strengths and consequences, including its consistency and independence, relation to permutation models, and examples and counterexamples of its use. 1973 edition.

This book grew out of my interest in what is common to three disciplines: mathematics, philosophy, and history. The origins of Zermelo's Axiom of Choice, as well as the controversy that it engendered, certainly lie in that intersection. Since the time of Aristotle, mathematics has been concerned alternately with its assumptions and with the objects, such as number and space, about which those assumptions were made. In the historical context of Zermelo's Axiom, I have explored both the vagaries and the fertility of this alternating concern. Though Zermelo's research has provided the focus for this book, much of it is devoted to the problems from which his work originated and to the later developments which, directly or indirectly, he inspired. A few remarks about format are in order. In this book a publication is indicated by a date after a name; so Hilbert 1926, 178 refers to page 178 of an article written by Hilbert, published in 1926, and listed in the bibliography.

This book, Consequences of the Axiom of Choice, is a comprehensive listing of statements that have been proved in the last 100 years using the axiom of choice. Each consequence, also referred to as a form of the axiom of choice, is assigned a number. Part I is a listing of the forms by number. In this part each form is given together with a listing of all statements known to be equivalent to it (equivalent in set theory without the axiom of choice). In Part II the forms are arranged by topic. In Part III we describe the models of set theory which are used to show non-implications between forms. Part IV, the notes section, contains definitions, summaries of important sub-areas and proofs that are not readily available elsewhere. Part V gives references for the relationships between forms and Part VI is the bibliography. Part VII is contained on the floppy disk which is enclosed in the book. It contains a table with form numbers as row and column headings. The entry in the table in row $n$, column $k$ gives the status of the implication ``form $n$ implies form $k$''. Software for easily extracting information from the table is also provided. Features: complete summary of all the work done in the last 100 years on statements that are weaker than the axiom of choice software provided gives complete, convenient access to information about relationships between the various consequences of the axiom of choice and about the models of set theory descriptions of more than 100 models used in the study of the axiom of choice an extensive bibliography About the software: Tables 1 and 2 are accessible on the PC-compatible software included with the book. In addition, the program maketex.c in the software package will create TeX files containing copies of Table 1 and Table 2 which may then be printed. (Tables 1 and 2 are also available at the authors' Web sites: http://www.math.purdue.edu/$\sim$jer/ or http://www.emunix.emich.edu/$\sim$phoward/.) Detailed instructions for setting up and using the software are included in the book's Introduction, and technical support is available directly from the authors.

This monograph contains a selection of over 250 propositions which are equivalent to AC. The first part on set forms has sections on the well-ordering theorem, variants of AC, the law of the trichotomy, maximal principles, statements related to the axiom of foundation, forms from algebra, cardinal number theory, and a final section of forms from topology, analysis and logic. The second part deals with the axiom of choice for classes - well-ordering theorem, choice and maximal principles.

The Principia Mathematica has long been recognised as one of the intellectual landmarks of the century.