Too late to wriggle out — fishfry
No wiggling. It was faulty of me to reference that book without specifying that I do not claim it discusses the identity axioms.
Ah, you have 'fessed up after all. — fishfry
I had previously admitted that I would have been mistaken if I referenced the book regarding identity theory.
So, no, not "after all".
You are making more of this than I intended for you to make. — fishfry
You could have stopped the first time I recognized my lapse.
And I make of it what it is worth: Being clear as to what was actually posted.
I'm mocking you for saying that you agreed with a point I made — fishfry
I know that. And your mocking is sophomoric. There is nothing amiss in agreeing on a point with someone but commenting that nonetheless their reasoning about it is poor.
If you cared more about the subject at hand then in prevailing with lame smart-aleckisms, then you could go back to the post to see my substantive point.
I have a bad habit of tweaking and needling people — fishfry
You're not good at it. And I don't buy that your motive is just to josh but not also imbued with putdown as a kind of trump card.
I don't know "nothing" about the matter. I know logic as it's used in math, but did not study enough formal predicate logic. Indiscernibility of identicals I know of in other contexts, and am genuinely surprised to hear that it's incorporated into set theory. — fishfry
You don't know enough to know that when we use the principle of substitution of equals for equals in mathematics, including set theory, we are in effect using the principle of the indiscernibility of identicals, whether we explicitly recognize it or not. And, with first order logic, which codifies and formalizes the reasoning for classical mathematics, we do explicitly formulate the principle in an axiom schema.
As I recall, the reason I mentioned the subject lately, and with that fancy name, is that the law of identity had been mentioned as historical and fundamental. My point was that also the indiscernibility of identicals is historical and fundamental. Indeed, with those two historical ideas, we axiomatize first order identity theory.
We were talking about how '=' is interpreted.
— TonesInDeepFreeze
It's interpreted as the axiom of extensionality in set theory. Which doesn't actually require identity, and I've asked for a specific example to prove otherwise. — fishfry
I have to repeat myself:
(1) Interpretation is semantical. The axiom of extensionality is syntactical.
(2) Even just syntactically, the axiom of extensionality is not a definition, in the sense of a syntactical definition.
(3) If set theory didn't have the identity axioms, then, even with the axiom of extensionality, set theory would wouldn't even get very far off the ground.
(4) I already gave you specific examples about three times!
Without the indiscernabilty of identicals you can't prove:
(x = y & y = z) -> x = z
x = y -> y = x
(n is even & j = n) -> j is even
If I have two sets, and I want to know if they're equal, I apply extensionality. Not identity. — fishfry
I've said, extensionality gives a sufficient condition for equality, but not a necessary condition for equality.
Yes, to prove x = y, then it suffices to prove Ax(z e x<-> z e y)
But that's not the only thing we do with '='.
We also use equal to reason this way:
x has property P, and y = x, so why has property P.
And that uses the indiscernibilithy of identicals.
Sometimes it's called "substitution of equals for equals".
When a school kid says:
"2 = 1+1, so 1/(1+1) = 1/2"
that is using substitution of equals for equals.
So, to codify and formalize use of subtsiution of equals for equals, we make it an axiom. And that axiom is a fomalization of the identity of indiscernibles,
I ask for a clear clear clear clear clear refutation or counterexample. — fishfry
I gave three, three times!
But you claimed that you could prove:
(x = y & y = z) -> x = z
using just the axiom of extensionality (or, even all the set theory axioms but not identity theory axioms), and I said:
THEN DO IT.