When do modules mimic arbitrary sets?

We study rings whose modules and module homomorphisms display behavior similar to that of sets and their maps. For example, whenever there is an epimorphism A→B, there is a monomorphism B→A (Artinian principal ideal rings (PIR) satisfy this property and its dual for all modules). As a byproduct of this framework, we prove that a ring every factor ring of which cogenerates its cyclic right modules (one-sided version of Kaplansky's dual rings) is right Artinian and right serial. Consequently, R is an Artinian PIR if and only if every factor ring of R cogenerates its finitely generated right modules. These results can be viewed as partial answers to the CF problem, the FGF problem due to Faith and a question of Faith and Menal on strongly Johns rings. Some known results and the above one yield the following: A ring R is a direct sum of right Artinian right chain rings and Artinian PIR's if and only if every factor ring of R cogenerates its (uniform) cyclic right modules (with nonzero socle); so, such rings coincide with the right CES-rings of Jain and Lopez-Pérmouth, rings whose factors are right CF and rings that satisfy the above mentioned property for their cyclic right modules A and B. Finally, a ring is either simple Artinian or a right Artinian right chain ring if and only if one of any two cyclic right modules embeds in the other.