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Full Idea
The preponderant part of Reality must consist of unfamiliar, unobserved things, whose existence would have gone unsuspected but for our acceptance of set theory.
Gist of Idea
A huge part of Reality is only accepted as existing if you have accepted set theory
Source
David Lewis (Parts of Classes [1991], 2.6)
Book Ref
Lewis,David: 'Parts of Classes' [Blackwell 1991], p.50
A Reaction
He is referring to the enormous sets at the far end of set theory, of a size that had never been hitherto conceived. Excellent. Daft to believe in something entirely because you have accepted set theory, with no other basis.
| 15510 | Classes are a host of ethereal, platonic, pseudo entities [Goodman] |
| 7785 | The use of plurals doesn't commit us to sets; there do not exist individuals and collections [Boolos] |
| 15508 | If singletons are where their members are, then so are all sets [Lewis] |
| 15514 | A huge part of Reality is only accepted as existing if you have accepted set theory [Lewis] |
| 15523 | Set theory isn't innocent; it generates infinities from a single thing; but mathematics needs it [Lewis] |
| 13631 | Are sets part of logic, or part of mathematics? [Shapiro] |
| 9549 | The set theorist cannot tell us what 'membership' is [Chihara] |
| 10109 | ZFC can prove that there is no set corresponding to the concept 'set' [George/Velleman] |