• L3dpen@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    15 days ago

    Isn’t 1 and +1 well defined by the Peano Axioms by using the intersection of all infinite successor functions and starting at the empty set?

    • Kogasa@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      14 days ago

      It depends on what you mean by well defined. At a fundamental level, we need to agree on basic definitions in order to communicate. Principia Mathematica aimed to set a formal logical foundation for all of mathematics, so it needed to be as rigid and unambiguous as possible. The proof that 1+1=2 is just slightly more verbose when using their language.