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A friend and I would like to learn axiomatic set theory. He and I are both comfortable writing proofs in first order logic. A teacher recommended that we use Axiomatic Set Theory by Suppes, but it seems a bit dated. Jech's Set Theory seems to be a very thorough book, and is more modern than Suppes. Would learning set theory from Jech be too ambitious? I went through the first chapter a while ago and enjoyed it, though it was pretty dense.

Asaf Karagila
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Tsvi Benschar
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    Jech and Kunen are the classics. One way or another you will have to study them. I recommend the 1st ed of Jech over the third. You can read the third when you know more. – Rene Schipperus Oct 29 '21 at 01:33
  • which kunen book? – Tsvi Benschar Oct 29 '21 at 01:43
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    Yeah, definitely don't use Suppes. Lots of better options https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/251490/textbooks-on-set-theory – spaceisdarkgreen Oct 29 '21 at 01:43
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    @TsviBenschar I learned from the 1980 Kunen book... It's hard to say for sure but I expect I would have had a harder time with the newer version. (Also it's hard to say for sure what will work for you since it has almost as much to do with style as substance. I'd say just try to read from a few different places and see where it takes you.) – spaceisdarkgreen Oct 29 '21 at 01:45
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    @TsviBenschar Also, if you do Kunen 80, I'd recommend skipping chapter 2 at first. 1,3,4,5,6 flow very nicely without it. – spaceisdarkgreen Oct 29 '21 at 02:11
  • Really, set theory quickly becomes hard. Start with reader friendly books, such as Cunningham or Halmos, or even Lipschutz. – Vince Vickler Oct 29 '21 at 11:33
  • Suppes' introduction to logic contains a good introductory chapter on set theory. – Vince Vickler Oct 29 '21 at 11:35

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