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Full Idea
It seems that it is possible for someone to learn to count intransitively without learning to count transitively. But not vice versa.
Gist of Idea
Someone can recite numbers but not know how to count things; but not vice versa
Source
Paul Benacerraf (What Numbers Could Not Be [1965], I)
Book Ref
'Philosophy of Mathematics: readings (2nd)', ed/tr. Benacerraf/Putnam [CUP 1983], p.275
A Reaction
Benacerraf favours the priority of the ordinals. It is doubtful whether you have grasped cardinality properly if you don't know how to count things. Could I understand 'he has 27 sheep', without understanding the system of natural numbers?
Related Idea
Idea 9898 We can count intransitively (reciting numbers) without understanding transitive counting of items [Benacerraf]