Single Idea 9145

[catalogued under 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 2. Abstracta by Selection]

Full Idea

We call 'cardinal number' the general concept which, by means of our active faculty of thought, arises when we make abstraction from an aggregate of its various elements, and of their order. From this double abstraction the number is an image in our mind.

Gist of Idea

We form the image of a cardinal number by a double abstraction, from the elements and from their order

Source

George Cantor (Beitrage [1915], §1), quoted by Kit Fine - Cantorian Abstraction: Recon. and Defence Intro

Book Reference

-: 'Journal of Philosophy' [-], p.599


A Reaction

[compressed] This is the great Cantor, creator of set theory, endorsing the traditional abstractionism which Frege and his followers so despise. Fine offers a defence of it. The Frege view is platonist, because it refuses to connect numbers to the world.