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Full Idea
If I am a nominalist non-Platonist, I think it is false that 'there are primes over 10', but I want to be able to say it like everyone else. I argue that this because the statement has a part that I do believe, a part that remains interestingly true.
Gist of Idea
A nominalist can assert statements about mathematical objects, as being partly true
Source
Stephen Yablo (Aboutness [2014], 05.8)
Book Ref
Yablo,Stephen: 'Aboutness' [Princeton 2014], p.90
A Reaction
This is obviously a key motivation for Yablo's book, as it reinforces his fictional view of abstract objects, but aims to capture the phenomena, by investigating what such sentences are 'about'. Admirable.
| 21696 | Nominalism rejects both attributes and classes (where extensionalism accepts the classes) [Quine] |
| 18141 | Nominalism about mathematics is either reductionist, or fictionalist [Bostock] |
| 18157 | Nominalism as based on application of numbers is no good, because there are too many applications [Bostock] |
| 18212 | Nominalists try to only refer to physical objects, or language, or mental constructions [Field,H] |
| 19002 | A nominalist can assert statements about mathematical objects, as being partly true [Yablo] |