Let be a Vector Space, and let be a Linearly Independent set. We seek to prove that there is a Hamel basis which will be the “maximal” linearly independent subset of , via Zorn’s Lemma.
Consider the class of linearly independent subsets of , . It is not empty by hypothesis, since .
Zorn’s Lemma’s condition
We need to prove that, for all Totally Ordered subsets of , they have an upper bound.
Thus, let ─ which means it is a collection of linearly independent sets which all are comparable via the partial ordering . A candidate for its upper bound is