Set Theory has experienced a rapid development in recent years, with major advances in forcing, inner models, large cardinals and descriptive set theory. The present book covers each of these areas, giving the reader an understanding of the ideas involved. It can be used for introductory students and is broad and deep enough to bring the reader near the boundaries of current research. Students and researchers in the field will find the book invaluable both as a study material and as a desktop reference.

Thoroughly revised, updated, expanded, and reorganized to serve as a primary text for mathematics courses, Introduction to Set Theory, Third Edition covers the basics: relations, functions, orderings, finite, countable, and uncountable sets, and cardinal and ordinal numbers. It also provides five additional self-contained chapters, consolidates the material on real numbers into a single updated chapter affording flexibility in course design, supplies end-of-section problems, with hints, of varying degrees of difficulty, includes new material on normal forms and Goodstein sequences, and adds important recent ideas including filters, ultrafilters, closed unbounded and stationary sets, and partitions.

Table of Contents

Sets; relations, functions and orderings; natural numbers; finite, countable and uncountable sets; cardinal numbers; ordinal numbers; alephs; the axiom of choice; arithmetic of cardinal numbers; sets of real numbers; filters and ultrafilters; combinatorial set theory; large cardinals; the axiom of foundation; the axiomatic set theory.

This monograph covers the recent major advances in various areas of set theory.

From the reviews:

"One of the classical textbooks and reference books in set theory....The present Third Millennium edition...is a whole new book. In three parts the author offers us what in his view every young set theorist should learn and master....This well-written book promises to influence the next generation of set theorists, much as its predecessor has done." --MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS