Centro de Matemática e Aplicações Fundamentais
Universidade de Lisboa
Tuesday, 24 January 2012, 14:00 (note the unusual weekday)
Cybernetica Bldg (Akadeemia tee 21), room B101
Slides from the talk [pdf]
Abstract: We present Specker's 1953 result that NF refutes the Axiom of Choice, with related fact that it proves the Axiom of Infinity. All known proofs of these results are nontrivial, so there is no surprise that neither Quine who introduced the theory in 1937, nor anyone else, had noticed these facts before Specker.
Main reference:
E. Specker. The axiom of choice in Quine's new foundations for mathematical logic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, v. 39, pp. 972-975, 1953.