This new edition has been completely rewritten; it includes a new chapter on non-well-founded set theory, a subject of considerable importance in computer science. Written in an easy-to-follow, intuitive style, the book is intended for upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate students in mathematics, logic, philosophy, or computer science.
This text covers the parts of contemporary set theory relevant to other areas of pure mathematics. After a review of "naïve" set theory, it develops the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms of the theory before discussing the ordinal and cardinal numbers. It then delves into contemporary set theory, covering such topics as the Borel hierarchy and Lebesgue measure. A final chapter presents an alternative conception of set theory useful in computer science.