Axioms and Ordinals, The Ordinals are Well Ordered

The Ordinals are Well Ordered

If S and T are ordinals, let z be their intersection.  Note that z is a transitive set.

Let x be the least element in S that is not in z, and let y be the least element of T that is not in z.  Suppose w ∈ x, yet w ∉ z.  (Since x does not contain itself, w ≠ x.)  Since S is transitive, w is a member of S.  This would make w the least element of S that is not in z.  This is a contradiction, hence z contains w after all.  All the members of x belong to z.  Conversely, if z contains w and w is not in x then x is in w, and since z is transitive, x is in z, which is impossible.  Therefore all the members of z belong to x.  Since x and z are subsets of each other, x = z.  Similarly, y = z, hence x = y.  Since x = y, it should be included in z.  If z is truly complete then either x or y does not exist, whence z is all of S or all of T.  The intersection of any two ordinals is one of the ordinals.

Given any two ordinals, one is a subset of the other.  Subset is already a partial ordering, hence the ordinals are linearly ordered by subset.

Continuing the above, let S and T be ordinals with S∩T = T.  If S is not equal to T, then T is a proper subset of S.  Note that x, the least element of S outside of T, contains precisely the elements of T.  Thus T = x and T ∈ S.  When it comes to ordinals, T∈S iff T⊂S.

The class of ordinals is linearly ordered by membership, or by subset, as you prefer.  We will now show the ordinals are well ordered.  Keep in mind, this ordering is a formula, not a set.  The symbols ∈ and ⊂ are expressions in logic that cannot be implemented as sets, since the domain, the class of all ordinals, is not a set.  (We'll prove that later.)

Let S be a nonempty set of ordinals.  Let x be any ordinal in S.  Since ordinals are linearly ordered, every y in S is either in x, or contains x.  Let T be the set of ordinals in S that are also in x.  If T is empty then x is the least ordinal in S.  Let's assume T is nonempty.  The elements of x are well ordered, so let z be the least element of T.  Now z is the least element in all of S, and the ordinals are well ordered, by set membership or by subset.

We can now show that the class of ordinals is not a set.  Suppose S is the set of all ordinals.  If y ∈ x ∈ S then x is an ordinal, and every member of an ordinal is an ordinal, so y is an ordinal and y is in S.  Thus S is transitive.  And we just showed the ordinals are well ordered by membership.  If S does not contain itself then it is an ordinal, and S should contain S.  Conversely, if S contains itself then it is an ordinal, and cannot contain itself.  Therefore S cannot exist.