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Single Idea 10518
[filed under theme 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 2. Abstract Objects / a. Nature of abstracta
]
Full Idea
While a shape or a direction is necessarily of something, games, musical compositions or dance routines are not of anything at all.
Gist of Idea
Shapes and directions are of something, but games and musical compositions are not
Source
Bob Hale (Abstract Objects [1987], Ch.3.II)
Book Ref
Hale,Bob: 'Abstract Objects' [Blackwell 1987], p.55
A Reaction
This seems important, because Frege's abstraction principle works nicely for abstractions 'of' some objects, but is not so clear for abstracta that are sui generis.
The
23 ideas
from 'Abstract Objects'
10308
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Questions about objects are questions about certain non-vacuous singular terms
[Hale]
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10310
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Objections to Frege: abstracta are unknowable, non-independent, unstatable, unindividuated
[Hale]
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10307
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The modern Fregean use of the term 'object' is much broader than the ordinary usage
[Hale]
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10312
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Often the same singular term does not ensure reliable inference
[Hale]
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10313
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Plenty of clear examples have singular terms with no ontological commitment
[Hale]
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10314
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An expression is a genuine singular term if it resists elimination by paraphrase
[Hale]
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10316
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We should decide whether singular terms are genuine by their usage
[Hale]
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10318
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Realists take universals to be the referrents of both adjectives and of nouns
[Hale]
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10315
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We can't believe in a 'whereabouts' because we ask 'what kind of object is it?'
[Hale]
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10321
|
We sometimes apply identity without having a real criterion
[Hale]
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10322
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If singular terms can't be language-neutral, then we face a relativity about their objects
[Hale]
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10511
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It is doubtful if one entity, a universal, can be picked out by both predicates and abstract nouns
[Hale]
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10513
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Many abstract objects, such as chess, seem non-spatial, but are not atemporal
[Hale]
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10514
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If the mental is non-spatial but temporal, then it must be classified as abstract
[Hale]
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10512
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The abstract/concrete distinction is based on what is perceivable, causal and located
[Hale]
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10517
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Colours and points seem to be both concrete and abstract
[Hale]
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10518
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Shapes and directions are of something, but games and musical compositions are not
[Hale]
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10523
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Being abstract is based on a relation between things which are spatially separated
[Hale]
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10521
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If F can't have location, there is no problem of things having F in different locations
[Hale]
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10519
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The abstract/concrete distinction is in the relations in the identity-criteria of object-names
[Hale]
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10520
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Token-letters and token-words are concrete objects, type-letters and type-words abstract
[Hale]
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10524
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There is a hierarchy of abstraction, based on steps taken by equivalence relations
[Hale]
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10522
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The relations featured in criteria of identity are always equivalence relations
[Hale]
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