We try to recast in modern terms a choice principle conceived by Beppo Levi, who called it the Approximation Principle (AP). Up to now, there was almost no discussion about Levi’s contribution, due to the quite obscure formulation of AP the author has chosen. After briefly reviewing the historical and philosophical surroundings of Levi’s proposal, we undertake our own attempt at interpreting AP. The idea underlying the principle, as well as the supposed faithfulness of our version to Levi’s original intention, are then discussed. Finally, an application of AP to a property of metric spaces is presented, with the aim of showing how AP may work in contexts where other forms of choice are commonly at use.

APPROXIMATING BEPPO LEVI’S PRINCIPIO DI APPROSSIMAZIONE

Schuster, Peter Michael
2014-01-01

Abstract

We try to recast in modern terms a choice principle conceived by Beppo Levi, who called it the Approximation Principle (AP). Up to now, there was almost no discussion about Levi’s contribution, due to the quite obscure formulation of AP the author has chosen. After briefly reviewing the historical and philosophical surroundings of Levi’s proposal, we undertake our own attempt at interpreting AP. The idea underlying the principle, as well as the supposed faithfulness of our version to Levi’s original intention, are then discussed. Finally, an application of AP to a property of metric spaces is presented, with the aim of showing how AP may work in contexts where other forms of choice are commonly at use.
2014
Principle of approximation; axiom of choice; deductive domains; countably coverable open subsets (of a metric space)
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/927706
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact