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Single Idea 10487
[filed under theme 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 2. Abstract Objects / a. Nature of abstracta
]
Full Idea
I am rather a fan of abstract objects, and confident of their existence. Smaller numbers, sets and functions don't offend my sense of reality.
Gist of Idea
I am a fan of abstract objects, and confident of their existence
Source
George Boolos (Must We Believe in Set Theory? [1997], p.128)
Book Ref
Boolos,George: 'Logic, Logic and Logic' [Harvard 1999], p.128
A Reaction
The great Boolos is rather hard to disagree with, but I disagree. Logicians love abstract objects, indeed they would almost be out of a job without them. It seems to me they smuggle them into our ontology by redefining either 'object' or 'exists'.
The
16 ideas
with the same theme
[what we should take abstract object to be]:
9607
|
The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects
[Brown,JR on Plato]
|
16086
|
Objects lacking matter are intrinsic unities
[Aristotle]
|
12990
|
Real (non-logical) abstract terms are either essences or accidents
[Leibniz]
|
8647
|
Not all objects are spatial; 4 can still be an object, despite lacking spatial co-ordinates
[Frege]
|
10545
|
Abstract objects may not cause changes, but they can be the subject of change
[Dummett]
|
9885
|
The existence of abstract objects is a pseudo-problem
[Dummett]
|
10487
|
I am a fan of abstract objects, and confident of their existence
[Boolos]
|
10414
|
Abstract objects are constituted by encoded collections of properties
[Zalta, by Swoyer]
|
10558
|
Abstract objects are actually constituted by the properties by which we conceive them
[Zalta]
|
17785
|
Real numbers as abstracted objects are now treated as complete ordered fields
[Mayberry]
|
10403
|
If properties are abstract objects, then their being abstract exemplifies being abstract
[Swoyer]
|
10513
|
Many abstract objects, such as chess, seem non-spatial, but are not atemporal
[Hale]
|
10514
|
If the mental is non-spatial but temporal, then it must be classified as abstract
[Hale]
|
10518
|
Shapes and directions are of something, but games and musical compositions are not
[Hale]
|
10523
|
Being abstract is based on a relation between things which are spatially separated
[Hale]
|
8704
|
Structuralists call a mathematical 'object' simply a 'place in a structure'
[Friend]
|