Sets or groups of things take on a life of their own. They have an existence which is different than that of their constituent parts but just as real. The four seasons represents both a set or list of individual seasons and something more. Here we are collecting these holistic sets which live beyond their members. We are interested in sets with definite numbers of distinct named members. We shall call them Cardinal Lists.
The guideline is that each cardinal list must be clearly defined. The defining rules can be logical, based in physics, historical or cultural. They have to be widely accepted as unambiguous and not arbitrary. For example, the member nations of the United Nations forms a group. However, the membership fluctuates. Thus to define it clearly a specific date must be given. To meet the arbitrariness criterion that date must be somehow distinguished relative to the life cycle of the United Nations itself. The founding membership present at its creation or the ending membership which will be present at its dissolution or destruction would serve well.
There must be a fixed integer number of distinct members in a cardinal list. Each member or item must exist as a named individual. Consequently the twelve inches which make up a foot are not qualified to form a cardinal list. Equally the forty thieves of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves do not form a cardinal list because they are not individually recognized or named.
The notion of cardinality or count of distinct members of a set brings great pleasure. Simply for this reason cardinality is a central concern in the lists we are compiling. We do not consider other properties or structures, such as ordering, which sets could have. The requirement that each member be named or more generally recognized as as individual means that cardinal lists are not quite sets. A set may have distinct but unnamed proto-individuals without a story of their own. Cardinal lists of distinct, recognized and named entities organized by cardinality are the crown jewels on display here!
You can find on the sidebar links which show cardinal sets grouped by their size. Directly below this paragraph are links leading to introductions of each cardinality with links in turn to cardinal lists of that cardinality. Enjoy looking around!
Cardinalities
ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE
