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Full Idea
The reason we have a hard time counting the branches and the waves is because our concepts 'branches on the tree' and 'waves on the ocean' do not determine sufficiently precise boundaries: the concepts do not draw a clear invisible line around each thing.
Gist of Idea
We struggle to count branches and waves because our concepts lack clear boundaries
Source
Kathrin Koslicki (Isolation and Non-arbitrary Division [1997], 2.2)
Book Ref
-: 'Synthese' [-], p.413
A Reaction
This is the 'isolation' referred to in Frege.
Related Idea
Idea 17426 A concept creating a unit must isolate and unify what falls under it [Frege]
17437 | Non-arbitrary division means that what falls under the concept cannot be divided into more of the same [Frege, by Koslicki] |
17438 | Our concepts decide what is countable, as in seeing the leaves of the tree, or the foliage [Frege, by Koslicki] |
17427 | Frege's 'isolation' could be absence of overlap, or drawing conceptual boundaries [Frege, by Koslicki] |
17426 | A concept creating a unit must isolate and unify what falls under it [Frege] |
17428 | Frege says counting is determining what number belongs to a given concept [Frege, by Koslicki] |
12154 | Are 'word token' and 'word type' different sorts of countable objects, or two ways of counting? [Geach, by Perry] |
17518 | Counting 'coin in this box' may have coin as the unit, with 'in this box' merely as the scope [Ayers] |
17516 | If counting needs a sortal, what of things which fall under two sortals? [Ayers] |
17529 | Maybe the concept needed under which things coincide must also yield a principle of counting [Wiggins] |
17530 | The sortal needed for identities may not always be sufficient to support counting [Wiggins] |
13867 | Instances of a non-sortal concept can only be counted relative to a sortal concept [Wright,C] |
17434 | We struggle to count branches and waves because our concepts lack clear boundaries [Koslicki] |