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Full Idea
For Frege, the distinction between what we count and what we do not count is drawn by our concepts. ...We can describe the very same external phenomena either as the leaves of a tree or its foliage.
Gist of Idea
Our concepts decide what is countable, as in seeing the leaves of the tree, or the foliage
Source
report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Kathrin Koslicki - Isolation and Non-arbitrary Division 3
Book Ref
-: 'Synthese' [-], p.424
A Reaction
Hm. We can't obey 'count the foliage', but we all know that foliage is countable stuff, where water isn't. Nature has a say here - it isn't just a matter of our concepts.
Related Idea
Idea 17439 There is no deep reason why we count carrots but not asparagus [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] |
| 17437 | Non-arbitrary division means that what falls under the concept cannot be divided into more of the same [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] |