Single Idea 9576

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / a. Units]

Full Idea

Multiplicity in general is no more than something and something and something, etc.; ..or more briefly, one and one and one, etc.

Gist of Idea

Multiplicity in general is just one and one and one, etc.

Source

Edmund Husserl (Philosophy of Arithmetic [1894], p.85), quoted by Gottlob Frege - Review of Husserl's 'Phil of Arithmetic'

Book Reference

-: 'Mind July 1972' [-], p.323


A Reaction

Frege goes on to attack this idea fairly convincingly. It seems obvious that it is hard to say that you have seventeen items, if the only numberical concept in your possession is 'one'. How would you distinguish 17 from 16? What makes the ones 'multiple'?