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Full Idea
Why do speakers of English count carrots but not asparagus? There is no 'deep' reason.
Gist of Idea
There is no deep reason why we count carrots but not asparagus
Source
Kathrin Koslicki (Isolation and Non-arbitrary Division [1997])
Book Ref
-: 'Synthese' [-], p.424
A Reaction
Koslick is offering this to defend the Fregean conceptual view of counting, but what seems to matter is what is countable, and not whether we happen to count it. You don't need to know what carrots are to count them. Cooks count asparagus.
Related Idea
Idea 17438 Our concepts decide what is countable, as in seeing the leaves of the tree, or the foliage [Frege, by Koslicki]
| 17439 | There is no deep reason why we count carrots but not asparagus [Koslicki] |
| 17435 | Objects do not naturally form countable units [Koslicki] |
| 17433 | We can still count squares, even if they overlap [Koslicki] |
| 17434 | We struggle to count branches and waves because our concepts lack clear boundaries [Koslicki] |
| 17436 | We talk of snow as what stays the same, when it is a heap or drift or expanse [Koslicki] |