Set Theory

Others have already said pretty much everything there is to say about the quality of the content in this book, and as I am still very early in the book myself, I do not have much to say about that. One thing the potential purchaser should be aware of is that many of the proofs leave a good bit of work to the reader, and while this is very beneficial to your overall understanding of the material, it also makes this book a very poor choice to those with little to no experience writing rigorous proofs (although I doubt many beginners are looking to purchase this book anyways).One thing I can definitely attest to is the physical quality of the book. Though I personally think the cover is a bit ugly, the binding is excellent and the printing is very clear. The price may seem a bit steep at first glance, but considering the massive amount of information the book contains and the quality of the printing, it is definitely a good deal.

As an Encyclopedia covering Set Theory, Math, and Logic, you will be hard pressed to find a better book covering a breadth of standardized topics. These topics form the foundation of applications relating to modern day technologies and methods.However, if you know nothing of Predicate Logic, Set Theory, and Mathematics, this book will leave you hopelessly lost. You need to learning Predicate Logic first. Next, learn basics of Mathematic proofs. Finally, find an introductory text to Set Theory that has an instructional approach to covering ZFC axioms, Ordinal and Cardinal Numbers. Then you will be able to use Jech's Set Theory text as intended.

Brilliant book. I am computer science with a theoretical math degree from 1996. I thought I would get back to abstract math for fun by finally understanding the proof of the independence of the continuum hypothesis. So I got this book and started reading in the middle - Boolean algebras, Model Theory and Forcing. Big mistake, this book can't be read this way except by experts in the field. So I went to another excellent book, Nick Weaver's Forcing for Mathematicians and after slowly reading it I largely "have" the proof of independence of CH. Now switched to reading Jech slowly from the beginning and doing some of the exercises. I find it to be of the right level of mathematical rigor to refresh my capacity and appetite for abstract math. It is dense, beautifully written, has a large number of exercises from easy to hard, and overall a most rewarding study.

The mathematical proofs are compactly written for the brevity and for the abstraction. Beautiful.

This book is amazing; an absolute joy to read. It is written in simply perfect mathematical prose: sufficiently terse to be interesting, yet thoroughly accessible to any studying mathematician. If I had to choose a single favorite math book, it would be this one.

This is one of the most complete books in set theory. If you are interested in learning set theory (from the basics to research level) this is a must have book.

I bought it used di , but it is really like new!! ! No one seems to have used it.

Unless one is very mature mathematically, I do not think, this is a good first exposure to abstract set theory. I am an engineer by training, with strong mathematical interest. I could barely finish the first part of the book, labelled "Basic Set Theory". It was just too concise, too dense for me.For the same reason that the book was simply too hard for me, I feel it may be excellent for someone with prior exposure to set theory, and who wants a concise, logically impecable book on the subject.

if you'd want to head over to learning the most recent work on set theory... look no more than this voluminous book... you've reached a point where climbing this hill would be the most satisfying and rewarding challenge you could've ever asked for...

This book is a mammoth survey that covers everything from the basics of set theory to recent research (such as models of set theory involving large cardinals). It is very well written and structured; the proofs are usually easy to follow and there is plenty of informal commentary and some historical notes. The book is in three parts: basic set theory; advanced set theory; and selected topics. Occasionally proofs are omitted or appear in the exercises, which saves space but is not ideal for fostering an understanding of the subject. I would say that the focus of this book is on the use of a technique called forcing to construct models of set theory and to show the independence of various set properties from the standard formalisation of set theory, but there are chapters on combinatorial set theory and descriptive set theory. For an understanding of the basics of forcing other sources have more intuitive motivation: John Burgess's article in the Handbook of Mathematical Logic is excellent, and I like the treatment in the newly available (2010) reprint of Smullyan and Fitting's Set Theory and the Continuum Problem. Having said that, for a student of set theory, this is the most comprehensive work that I have come across; and is a valuable reference as well as an enlightening read.

After I studied "Introduction to set theory" by Hrbacek and Jech, I used this book as an undergraduate student to study the more advanced theorems. It's really well written and it's generally quite clear. It's not an introductory book on the argument, but after you have the basic notions it's really good.