Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Crispin Wright, Crawford L. Elder and Saunders MacLane

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1 idea

18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 7. Abstracta by Equivalence
If we can establish directions from lines and parallelism, we were already committed to directions [Wright,C]
     Full Idea: The fact that it seems possible to establish a sortal notion of direction by reference to lines and parallelism, discloses tacit commitments to directions in statements about parallelism...There is incoherence in the idea that a line might lack direction.
     From: Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983], 4.xviii)
     A reaction: This seems like a slippery slope into a very extravagant platonism about concepts. Are concepts like direction as much a part of the natural world as rivers are? What other undiscovered concepts await us?