Chance and the Continuum Hypothesis

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 103 (3):639-60 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper presents and defends an argument that the continuum hypothesis is false, based on considerations about objective chance and an old theorem due to Banach and Kuratowski. More specifically, I argue that the probabilistic inductive methods standardly used in science presuppose that every proposition about the outcome of a chancy process has a certain chance between 0 and 1. I also argue in favour of the standard view that chances are countably additive. Since it is possible to randomly pick out a point on a continuum, for instance using a roulette wheel or by flipping a countable infinity of fair coins, it follows, given the axioms of ZFC, that there are many different cardinalities between countable infinity and the cardinality of the continuum.

Author's Profile

Daniel Hoek
Virginia Tech

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-06-13

Downloads
2,058 (#5,285)

6 months
296 (#5,644)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?