48 ideas
| 9935 | Mathematical truth is always compromising between ordinary language and sensible epistemology [Benacerraf] |
| 9912 | There are no such things as numbers [Benacerraf] |
| 13412 | Obtaining numbers by abstraction is impossible - there are too many; only a rule could give them, in order [Benacerraf] |
| 13413 | We must explain how we know so many numbers, and recognise ones we haven't met before [Benacerraf] |
| 9901 | Numbers can't be sets if there is no agreement on which sets they are [Benacerraf] |
| 13411 | If numbers are basically the cardinals (Frege-Russell view) you could know some numbers in isolation [Benacerraf] |
| 9151 | Benacerraf says numbers are defined by their natural ordering [Benacerraf, by Fine,K] |
| 13891 | To understand finite cardinals, it is necessary and sufficient to understand progressions [Benacerraf, by Wright,C] |
| 17904 | A set has k members if it one-one corresponds with the numbers less than or equal to k [Benacerraf] |
| 17906 | To explain numbers you must also explain cardinality, the counting of things [Benacerraf] |
| 9898 | We can count intransitively (reciting numbers) without understanding transitive counting of items [Benacerraf] |
| 17903 | Someone can recite numbers but not know how to count things; but not vice versa [Benacerraf] |
| 9897 | The application of a system of numbers is counting and measurement [Benacerraf] |
| 9899 | The successor of x is either x and all its members, or just the unit set of x [Benacerraf] |
| 9900 | For Zermelo 3 belongs to 17, but for Von Neumann it does not [Benacerraf] |
| 8697 | Disputes about mathematical objects seem irrelevant, and mathematicians cannot resolve them [Benacerraf, by Friend] |
| 8304 | No particular pair of sets can tell us what 'two' is, just by one-to-one correlation [Benacerraf, by Lowe] |
| 9906 | If ordinal numbers are 'reducible to' some set-theory, then which is which? [Benacerraf] |
| 13415 | An adequate account of a number must relate it to its series [Benacerraf] |
| 9908 | The job is done by the whole system of numbers, so numbers are not objects [Benacerraf] |
| 9907 | If any recursive sequence will explain ordinals, then it seems to be the structure which matters [Benacerraf] |
| 9909 | The number 3 defines the role of being third in a progression [Benacerraf] |
| 9911 | Number words no more have referents than do the parts of a ruler [Benacerraf] |
| 8925 | Mathematical objects only have properties relating them to other 'elements' of the same structure [Benacerraf] |
| 9938 | How can numbers be objects if order is their only property? [Benacerraf, by Putnam] |
| 9910 | Number-as-objects works wholesale, but fails utterly object by object [Benacerraf] |
| 17927 | Realists have semantics without epistemology, anti-realists epistemology but bad semantics [Benacerraf, by Colyvan] |
| 9936 | The platonist view of mathematics doesn't fit our epistemology very well [Benacerraf] |
| 9903 | Number words are not predicates, as they function very differently from adjectives [Benacerraf] |
| 9904 | The set-theory paradoxes mean that 17 can't be the class of all classes with 17 members [Benacerraf] |
| 1212 | Replacing timbers on Theseus' ship was the classic illustration of the problem of growth and change [Plutarch] |
| 9905 | Identity statements make sense only if there are possible individuating conditions [Benacerraf] |
| 5958 | The sun is always bright; it doesn't become bright when it emerges [Plutarch] |
| 5960 | When the soul is intelligent and harmonious, it is part of god and derives from god [Plutarch] |
| 5959 | Some philosophers say the soul is light [Plutarch] |
| 5952 | Rather than being the whole soul, maybe I am its chief part? [Plutarch] |
| 5951 | If atoms have no qualities, they cannot possibly produce a mind [Plutarch] |
| 5963 | Some say emotion is a sort of reason, and others say virtue concerns emotion [Plutarch] |
| 20796 | Action needs an affinity for a presentation, and an impulse toward the affinity [Plutarch] |
| 1477 | Being manly and brave is the result of convention, not of human nature [Plutarch] |
| 22237 | The Greeks had a single word meaning both 'beautiful' and 'good' [Pormann] |
| 1478 | Animals don't value pleasure, as they cease sexual intercourse after impregnation [Plutarch] |
| 5948 | The good life involves social participation, loyalty, temperance and honesty [Plutarch] |
| 1479 | Animals have not been led into homosexuality, because they value pleasure very little [Plutarch] |
| 5950 | If only atoms exist, how do qualities arise when the atoms come together? [Plutarch] |
| 5974 | People report seeing through rocks, or over the horizon, or impossibly small works [Plutarch] |
| 5957 | Absurd superstitions make people atheist, not disharmony in nature [Plutarch] |
| 5955 | No one will ever find a city that lacks religious practices [Plutarch] |