Talk:Singleton (mathematics)

Latest comment: 5 months ago by Kodiologist in topic Terminology

Clarification please: Definition by indicator functions edit

Regarding section "Definition by indicator functions":

First off, if I'm reading this correctly, this section pertains to singleton *classes*, not the singleton sets which were described in the article intro. Since a class and a set are not the same thing, might this call for a clarifying remark?

Next, the actual narrative "Let S be a class [...] for some y in X" is inordinately obtuse without any explanation. I *think* this specifies S = {y}, and if so it would greatly help to say so, and tell why one would want to use such a verbose way of saying so. But I'm not entirely sure, because of the "for some y in X" phrase. Since for each x, "some y" could be set to x, that could be interpreted to mean that x=y for all x, and hence S = X.

Finally, the definition of natural number 1. Is there an expectation that the reader will understand this, without any definition of the constituent variables? What is its relevance to this article? Gwideman (talk) 11:05, 27 August 2012 (UTC)Reply

I've separated the PM definitions to a separate section since there appears to be no connection between the treatment in PM and indicator functions. I've also added some clarification. I agree with foregoing comments in respect of what remains. The last line seems to require one of 0 or 1 to be a proposition. It may assume an assignment of 0 or 1 to propositions according to the truth value as in some programming languages, but if so it should specify.Martin Rattigan (talk) 05:17, 19 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Distinction from the contained element edit

What happens if the contained element is the same as the singleton? Does this break the axiom of regularity? 178.138.35.124 (talk) 23:58, 12 September 2023 (UTC)Reply

Terminology edit

I think the redundant phrasing "singleton set" is more established than "singleton" alone, but I'm not sure. It could be worth reviewing some textbooks to check this. —Kodiologist (t) 15:02, 29 November 2023 (UTC)Reply