Single Idea 14505

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / e. Structuralism critique]

Full Idea

Those who hold that not all mathematical questions can be concerned with structural matters can point to 'why are π or e transcendental?' or 'how are the prime numbers distributed?' as questions about particular features in the domain.

Gist of Idea

Some questions concern mathematical entities, rather than whole structures

Source

Kathrin Koslicki (The Structure of Objects [2008], 9.3.1 n6)

Book Reference

Koslicki,Kathrin: 'The Structure of Objects' [OUP 2008], p.241


A Reaction

[She cites Mac Lane on this] The reply would have to be that we only have those particular notions because we have abstracted them from structures, as in deriving π for circles.