skip to main content

Mathematics (thesaurus)

Content language

Home / Explore / Browse / Vocabularies / Mathematics (thesaurus)

set theory > axiom of regularity

Preferred term

axiom of regularity

Definition(s)

In mathematics, the axiom of regularity (also known as the axiom of foundation) is an axiom of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory that states that every non-empty set A contains an element that is disjoint from A. In first-order logic, the axiom reads:

${\\displaystyle \ orall x\\,(x\ eq \\varnothing \ ightarrow \\exists y(y\\in x\\ \\land y\\cap x=\\varnothing )).}$

The axiom of regularity together with the axiom of pairing implies that no set is an element of itself, and that there is no infinite sequence (a_n) such that a_i+1 is an element of a_i for all i. With the axiom of dependent choice (which is a weakened form of the axiom of choice), this result can be reversed: if there are no such infinite sequences, then the axiom of regularity is true. Hence, in this context the axiom of regularity is equivalent to the sentence that there are no downward infinite membership chains.
(Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_regularity)

Broader concept(s)

set theory

Related concept(s)

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory

Synonym(s)

axiom of foundation

In other languages

axiome de régularité

French
axiome de fondation

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/PSR-VWLLSCW9-R

Download this concept:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD Last modified 10/12/23