Brief History of Future Set Theory
Werner DePauli-Schimanovich · Conceptus · 2010
Summary Mathematicians still use Na¨ıve Set Theory when generating sets without danger of producing any contradiction. Therefore their working method can be considered as an experimental consistent inference system with an experience of over 100 years. My conjecture is that this method works well because mathematicians use only those predicates to form sets, which yield closed hereditary consistent predicate extensions, i.e. classes which can also be sets. And for every open formula they use in the process of constructing a certain (special) set (bottom-up), we can always find an “almost-closed” formula (i.e. a parameter-free formula with only the free variable “x”) which yields the same certain (special) set as predicate extension as constructed in the bottom-up process before. Therefore the use of predicates with free parameters in the Comprehension Scheme does not cause any difficulties and can be “lifted” by meta-mathematical considerations.