Part 10 (1/2)
[50] _Mathematical Discourses concerning two new sciences relating to mechanics and local motion, in four dialogues._ By Galileo Galilei, Chief Philosopher and Mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Done into English from the Italian, by Tho. Weston, late Master, and now published by John Weston, present Master, of the Academy at Greenwich.
See pp. 46 ff.
The way in which the problem is expounded in the above discussion is worthy of Galileo, but the solution suggested is not the right one. It is actually the case that the number of square (finite) numbers is the same as the number of (finite) numbers. The fact that, so long as we confine ourselves to numbers less than some given finite number, the proportion of squares tends towards zero as the given finite number increases, does not contradict the fact that the number of all finite squares is the same as the number of all finite numbers. This is only an instance of the fact, now familiar to mathematicians, that the _limit_ of a function as the variable _approaches_ a given point may not be the same as its _value_ when the variable actually _reaches_ the given point. But although the infinite numbers which Galileo discusses are equal, Cantor has shown that what Simplicius could not conceive is true, namely, that there are an infinite number of different infinite numbers, and that the conception of _greater_ and _less_ can be perfectly well applied to them. The whole of Simplicius's difficulty comes, as is evident, from his belief that, if _greater_ and _less_ can be applied, a part of an infinite collection must have fewer terms than the whole; and when this is denied, all contradictions disappear. As regards greater and less lengths of lines, which is the problem from which the above discussion starts, that involves a meaning of _greater_ and _less_ which is not arithmetical. The number of points is the same in a long line and in a short one, being in fact the same as the number of points in all s.p.a.ce. The _greater_ and _less_ of metrical geometry involves the new metrical conception of _congruence_, which cannot be developed out of arithmetical considerations alone. But this question has not the fundamental importance which belongs to the arithmetical theory of infinity.
(2) _Non-inductiveness._--The second property by which infinite numbers are distinguished from finite numbers is the property of non-inductiveness. This will be best explained by defining the positive property of inductiveness which characterises the finite numbers, and which is named after the method of proof known as ”mathematical induction.”
Let us first consider what is meant by calling a property ”hereditary”
in a given series. Take such a property as being named Jones. If a man is named Jones, so is his son; we will therefore call the property of being called Jones hereditary with respect to the relation of father and son. If a man is called Jones, all his descendants in the direct male line are called Jones; this follows from the fact that the property is hereditary. Now, instead of the relation of father and son, consider the relation of a finite number to its immediate successor, that is, the relation which holds between 0 and 1, between 1 and 2, between 2 and 3, and so on. If a property of numbers is hereditary with respect to this relation, then if it belongs to (say) 100, it must belong also to all finite numbers greater than 100; for, being hereditary, it belongs to 101 because it belongs to 100, and it belongs to 102 because it belongs to 101, and so on--where the ”and so on” will take us, sooner or later, to any finite number greater than 100. Thus, for example, the property of being greater than 99 is hereditary in the series of finite numbers; and generally, a property is hereditary in this series when, given any number that possesses the property, the next number must always also possess it.
It will be seen that a hereditary property, though it must belong to all the finite numbers greater than a given number possessing the property, need not belong to all the numbers less than this number. For example, the hereditary property of being greater than 99 belongs to 100 and all greater numbers, but not to any smaller number. Similarly, the hereditary property of being called Jones belongs to all the descendants (in the direct male line) of those who have this property, but not to all their ancestors, because we reach at last a first Jones, before whom the ancestors have no surname. It is obvious, however, that any hereditary property possessed by Adam must belong to all men; and similarly any hereditary property possessed by 0 must belong to all finite numbers. This is the principle of what is called ”mathematical induction.” It frequently happens, when we wish to prove that all finite numbers have some property, that we have first to prove that 0 has the property, and then that the property is hereditary, _i.e._ that, if it belongs to a given number, then it belongs to the next number. Owing to the fact that such proofs are called ”inductive,” I shall call the properties to which they are applicable ”inductive” properties. Thus an inductive property of numbers is one which is hereditary and belongs to 0.
Taking any one of the natural numbers, say 29, it is easy to see that it must have all inductive properties. For since such properties belong to 0 and are hereditary, they belong to 1; therefore, since they are hereditary, they belong to 2, and so on; by twenty-nine repet.i.tions of such arguments we show that they belong to 29. We may _define_ the ”inductive” numbers as _all those that possess all inductive properties_; they will be the same as what are called the ”natural”
numbers, _i.e._ the ordinary finite whole numbers. To all such numbers, proofs by mathematical induction can be validly applied. They are those numbers, we may loosely say, which can be reached from 0 by successive additions of 1; in other words, they are all the numbers that can be reached by counting.
But beyond all these numbers, there are the infinite numbers, and infinite numbers do not have all inductive properties. Such numbers, therefore, may be called non-inductive. All those properties of numbers which are proved by an imaginary step-by-step process from one number to the next are liable to fail when we come to infinite numbers. The first of the infinite numbers has no immediate predecessor, because there is no greatest finite number; thus no succession of steps from one number to the next will ever reach from a finite number to an infinite one, and the step-by-step method of proof fails. This is another reason for the supposed self-contradictions of infinite numbers. Many of the most familiar properties of numbers, which custom had led people to regard as logically necessary, are in fact only demonstrable by the step-by-step method, and fail to be true of infinite numbers. But so soon as we realise the necessity of proving such properties by mathematical induction, and the strictly limited scope of this method of proof, the supposed contradictions are seen to contradict, not logic, but only our prejudices and mental habits.
The property of being increased by the addition of 1--_i.e._ the property of non-reflexiveness--may serve to ill.u.s.trate the limitations of mathematical induction. It is easy to prove that 0 is increased by the addition of 1, and that, if a given number is increased by the addition of 1, so is the next number, _i.e._ the number obtained by the addition of 1. It follows that each of the natural numbers is increased by the addition of 1. This follows generally from the general argument, and follows for each particular case by a sufficient number of applications of the argument. We first prove that 0 is not equal to 1; then, since the property of being increased by 1 is hereditary, it follows that 1 is not equal to 2; hence it follows that 2 is not equal to 3; if we wish to prove that 30,000 is not equal to 30,001, we can do so by repeating this reasoning 30,000 times. But we cannot prove in this way that _all_ numbers are increased by the addition of 1; we can only prove that this holds of the numbers attainable by successive additions of 1 starting from 0. The reflexive numbers, which lie beyond all those attainable in this way, are as a matter of fact not increased by the addition of 1.
The two properties of reflexiveness and non-inductiveness, which we have considered as characteristics of infinite numbers, have not so far been proved to be always found together. It is known that all reflexive numbers are non-inductive, but it is not known that all non-inductive numbers are reflexive. Fallacious proofs of this proposition have been published by many writers, including myself, but up to the present no valid proof has been discovered. The infinite numbers actually known, however, are all reflexive as well as non-inductive; thus, in mathematical practice, if not in theory, the two properties are always a.s.sociated. For our purposes, therefore, it will be convenient to ignore the bare possibility that there may be non-inductive non-reflexive numbers, since all known numbers are either inductive or reflexive.
When infinite numbers are first introduced to people, they are apt to refuse the name of numbers to them, because their behaviour is so different from that of finite numbers that it seems a wilful misuse of terms to call them numbers at all. In order to meet this feeling, we must now turn to the logical basis of arithmetic, and consider the logical definition of numbers.
The logical definition of numbers, though it seems an essential support to the theory of infinite numbers, was in fact discovered independently and by a different man. The theory of infinite numbers--that is to say, the arithmetical as opposed to the logical part of the theory--was discovered by Georg Cantor, and published by him in 1882-3.[51] The definition of number was discovered about the same time by a man whose great genius has not received the recognition it deserves--I mean Gottlob Frege of Jena. His first work, _Begriffsschrift_, published in 1879, contained the very important theory of hereditary properties in a series to which I alluded in connection with inductiveness. His definition of number is contained in his second work, published in 1884, and ent.i.tled _Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik, eine logisch-mathematische Untersuchung uber den Begriff der Zahl_.[52] It is with this book that the logical theory of arithmetic begins, and it will repay us to consider Frege's a.n.a.lysis in some detail.
[51] In his _Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannichfaltigkeitslehre_ and in articles in _Acta Mathematica_, vol. ii.
[52] The definition of number contained in this book, and elaborated in the _Grundgesetze der Arithmetik_ (vol. i., 1893; vol. ii., 1903), was rediscovered by me in ignorance of Frege's work. I wish to state as emphatically as possible--what seems still often ignored--that his discovery antedated mine by eighteen years.
Frege begins by noting the increased desire for logical strictness in mathematical demonstrations which distinguishes modern mathematicians from their predecessors, and points out that this must lead to a critical investigation of the definition of number. He proceeds to show the inadequacy of previous philosophical theories, especially of the ”synthetic _a priori_” theory of Kant and the empirical theory of Mill.
This brings him to the question: What kind of object is it that number can properly be ascribed to? He points out that physical things may be regarded as one or many: for example, if a tree has a thousand leaves, they may be taken altogether as const.i.tuting its foliage, which would count as one, not as a thousand; and _one_ pair of boots is the same object as _two_ boots. It follows that physical things are not the subjects of which number is properly predicated; for when we have discovered the proper subjects, the number to be ascribed must be unambiguous. This leads to a discussion of the very prevalent view that number is really something psychological and subjective, a view which Frege emphatically rejects. ”Number,” he says, ”is as little an object of psychology or an outcome of psychical processes as the North Sea....
The botanist wishes to state something which is just as much a fact when he gives the number of petals in a flower as when he gives its colour.
The one depends as little as the other upon our caprice. There is therefore a certain similarity between number and colour; but this does not consist in the fact that both are sensibly perceptible in external things, but in the fact that both are objective” (p. 34).
”I distinguish the objective,” he continues, ”from the palpable, the spatial, the actual. The earth's axis, the centre of ma.s.s of the solar system, are objective, but I should not call them actual, like the earth itself” (p. 35). He concludes that number is neither spatial and physical, nor subjective, but non-sensible and objective. This conclusion is important, since it applies to all the subject-matter of mathematics and logic. Most philosophers have thought that the physical and the mental between them exhausted the world of being. Some have argued that the objects of mathematics were obviously not subjective, and therefore must be physical and empirical; others have argued that they were obviously not physical, and therefore must be subjective and mental. Both sides were right in what they denied, and wrong in what they a.s.serted; Frege has the merit of accepting both denials, and finding a third a.s.sertion by recognising the world of logic, which is neither mental nor physical.
The fact is, as Frege points out, that no number, not even 1, is applicable to physical things, but only to general terms or descriptions, such as ”man,” ”satellite of the earth,” ”satellite of Venus.” The general term ”man” is applicable to a certain number of objects: there are in the world so and so many men. The unity which philosophers rightly feel to be necessary for the a.s.sertion of a number is the unity of the general term, and it is the general term which is the proper subject of number. And this applies equally when there is one object or none which falls under the general term. ”Satellite of the earth” is a term only applicable to one object, namely, the moon. But ”one” is not a property of the moon itself, which may equally well be regarded as many molecules: it is a property of the general term ”earth's satellite.” Similarly, 0 is a property of the general term ”satellite of Venus,” because Venus has no satellite. Here at last we have an intelligible theory of the number 0. This was impossible if numbers applied to physical objects, because obviously no physical object could have the number 0. Thus, in seeking our definition of number we have arrived so far at the result that numbers are properties of general terms or general descriptions, not of physical things or of mental occurrences.
Instead of speaking of a general term, such as ”man,” as the subject of which a number can be a.s.serted, we may, without making any serious change, take the subject as the cla.s.s or collection of objects--_i.e._ ”mankind” in the above instance--to which the general term in question is applicable. Two general terms, such as ”man” and ”featherless biped,”
which are applicable to the same collection of objects, will obviously have the same number of instances; thus the number depends upon the cla.s.s, not upon the selection of this or that general term to describe it, provided several general terms can be found to describe the same cla.s.s. But some general term is always necessary in order to describe a cla.s.s. Even when the terms are enumerated, as ”this and that and the other,” the collection is const.i.tuted by the general property of being either this, or that, or the other, and only so acquires the unity which enables us to speak of it as _one_ collection. And in the case of an infinite cla.s.s, enumeration is impossible, so that description by a general characteristic common and peculiar to the members of the cla.s.s is the only possible description. Here, as we see, the theory of number to which Frege was led by purely logical considerations becomes of use in showing how infinite cla.s.ses can be amenable to number in spite of being incapable of enumeration.
Frege next asks the question: When do two collections have the same number of terms? In ordinary life, we decide this question by counting; but counting, as we saw, is impossible in the case of infinite collections, and is not logically fundamental with finite collections.
We want, therefore, a different method of answering our question. An ill.u.s.tration may help to make the method clear. I do not know how many married men there are in England, but I do know that the number is the same as the number of married women. The reason I know this is that the relation of husband and wife relates one man to one woman and one woman to one man. A relation of this sort is called a one-one relation. The relation of father to son is called a one-many relation, because a man can have only one father but may have many sons; conversely, the relation of son to father is called a many-one relation. But the relation of husband to wife (in Christian countries) is called one-one, because a man cannot have more than one wife, or a woman more than one husband. Now, whenever there is a one-one relation between all the terms of one collection and all the terms of another severally, as in the case of English husbands and English wives, the number of terms in the one collection is the same as the number in the other; but when there is not such a relation, the number is different. This is the answer to the question: When do two collections have the same number of terms?
We can now at last answer the question: What is meant by the number of terms in a given collection? When there is a one-one relation between all the terms of one collection and all the terms of another severally, we shall say that the two collections are ”similar.” We have just seen that two similar collections have the same number of terms. This leads us to define the number of a given collection as the cla.s.s of all collections that are similar to it; that is to say, we set up the following formal definition:
”The number of terms in a given cla.s.s” is defined as meaning ”the cla.s.s of all cla.s.ses that are similar to the given cla.s.s.”