BRACERS Record Detail for 132438
To access the original letter, email the Ready Division.
BR does not understand Schrodinger's difficulty. The multiplicative axiom must be assumed.
The original letter is at https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/search#?q=bertrand%20russell&page=2&pagesize=10. There is a photocopy of this ribbon copy at record 55810; source unknown.
BR TO ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER, 23 JUNE 1951
BRACERS 132438. TLS(DX). Internet print
Proofread by K. Blackwell
<letterhead>
41 Queen’s Road
Richmond
Surrey
June 23rd, 1951
Dear Doctor Schrödinger,
Thank you for your letter of June 11th. I do not quite understand the nature of your difficulty about two statements of mine which seem to you incompatible. The question whether 2א ?? a is or is not greater than equal to or less than some one or other of the series Alefs is one which can only be decided if the multiplicative axiom is assumed. In that case any number must be greater than equal to or less than any other. But there is no “precariousness” either about the series of Alefs or about 2 to the power Alef nought. They are all perfectly good numbers, even if their relations to each other are unknown.
If you are ever in London it would be a great pleasure to see you here.
Yours very sincerely,
<signed> Russell
(Earl Russell)
- a2 to the power Alef nought.
