An Aristotelian notion of size (Q2433745)

Following the earlier attempt by \textit{V. Benci} and \textit{M. Di Nasso} [``Numerosities of labelled sets: A new way of counting'', Adv. Math. 173, 50--67 (2003; Zbl 1028.03042)], the authors continue their quest for a reasonable notion of size for infinite sets that would satisfy Aristotle's Principle: If \(A\) is a proper subset of \(B\), then the size of \(A\) is strictly less than the size of \(B\). Four principles for a numerosity function assigning sizes from a discretely ordered ring to arbitrary sets of ordinals are identified, and it is shown that they imply Aristotle's Principle and invariance under translations and homotheties. A finite approximation method is developed to show that there is a numerosity function on the class of the sets of ordinals whose values are in the ring of hyperintegers in the sense of nonstandard analysis. The same method is used to extend the numerosity function to all sets. Numerosities are class objects, the problem of formalizing the results in ZFC is discussed. The paper concludes with a list of interesting open problems.