Page:Cantortransfinite.djvu/105

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86
THE FOUNDING OF THE THEORY

The elements of this aggregate are, therefore, the elements of , of , of , , taken together.

We will call by the name "part" or "partial aggregate" of an aggregate any other aggregate whose elements are also elements of .

If is a part of and is a part of , then is a part of .

Every aggregate has a definite "power," which we will also call its "cardinal number."

We will call by the name "power" or "cardinal number" of the general concept which, by means of our active faculty of thought, arises from the aggregate when we make abstraction of the nature of its various elements and of the order in which they are given.

[482] We denote the result of this double act of abstraction, the cardinal number or power of , by

(3)

Since every single element , if we abstract from its nature, becomes a "unit," the cardinal number is a definite aggregate composed of units, and this number has existence in our mind as an intellectual image or projection of the given aggregate .

We say that two aggregates and are "equivalent," in signs

(4)
or

if it is possible to put them, by some law, in such a relation to one another that to every element of each one of them corresponds one and only one element