# [Set Theory] Proving Cantor's Theorem by Contradicting Surjectivity on Power Sets

Let $$S$$ be a set, and let $$P(S )$$ be the power set of $$S$$, which is the set of subsets of $$S$$.

Suppose that $$f: S \rightarrow P(S )$$ surjects. We define $T = \{ x\in S: x \not\in f(x) \}.$ so that $$f(x)$$ is an element of $$P(S)$$, hence a subset of $$S$$, and $$x$$ is an element of $$S$$.

By assumption $$f$$ surjects, so there exists $$t \in S$$ such that $$f (t) = T$$.

First, let $$t \in T$$. Then $t \in \{ x \in S: x \not\in f(x) \},$

so $$t \in S$$ such that $$t \not\in f(t)$$. But since $$t \in T= f(t)$$, this is a contradiction because $$t \in T = f(t)$$, but $$t \not\in f(t)$$.

Now let $$t \not\in T$$. Then since $$t$$ is not in $$T$$, $$t$$ cannot be an element of $$S$$ such that $$t \not\in f(x)$$. So if $$t \in S$$, then $$t$$ must also be a member of $$f(t)$$. But supposing that $$f$$ surjects, there is a $$t \in S$$ such that $$f(t) = T$$, which means that $$t \not\in T = f(t)$$, but $$t \in f(t)$$. This is a contradiction.

$$\therefore$$ We conclude from both cases that $$f$$ cannot surject, because there exists no $$t \in S$$ such that $$f(t) = T$$. In other words, $$T \not= f(t)$$ for all $$t \in S$$.

In this note, we have shown that no map from set $$S$$ to its power set $$P(S )$$ can surject, which proves that there exists no bijection from S to its power set. This fundamental result means that for any set S, the set of all subsets of $$S$$, $$P(S)$$,has a strictly greater cardinality than $$S$$. That

$|S| < |P(S)|$ or $Card(S) < Card(P(S)).$

Note by Tasha Kim
1 week, 3 days ago

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You may also want to show that $$f$$ is injective. Otherwise, it is not obvious that $$|S| \leq |P(S)|$$. (The surjective argument only shows that the cardinalities are not equal.)

- 1 week, 1 day ago

Thanks for pointing that out! Following your comment, constructing $$g: S \rightarrow P(S)$$ so that every element of $$S$$ is mapped to a singleton set, i.e. $$x \rightarrow \{x\}$$ will do.

- 6 days, 23 hours ago