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Full Idea
We should abandon the idea that the use of plural forms commits us to the existence of sets/classes… Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. There are not two sorts of things in the world, individuals and collections.
Gist of Idea
The use of plurals doesn't commit us to sets; there do not exist individuals and collections
Source
George Boolos (To be is to be the value of a variable.. [1984]), quoted by Henry Laycock - Object
Book Ref
'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.
A Reaction
The problem of quantifying over sets is notoriously difficult. Try http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/object/index.html.
| 7785 | The use of plurals doesn't commit us to sets; there do not exist individuals and collections [Boolos] |
| 10225 | Monadic second-order logic might be understood in terms of plural quantifiers [Boolos, by Shapiro] |
| 13671 | Second-order quantifiers are just like plural quantifiers in ordinary language, with no extra ontology [Boolos, by Shapiro] |
| 10267 | We should understand second-order existential quantifiers as plural quantifiers [Boolos, by Shapiro] |
| 7806 | Boolos invented plural quantification [Boolos, by Benardete,JA] |
| 10736 | Boolos showed how plural quantifiers can interpret monadic second-order logic [Boolos, by Linnebo] |
| 10780 | Any sentence of monadic second-order logic can be translated into plural first-order logic [Boolos, by Linnebo] |
| 10697 | Identity is clearly a logical concept, and greatly enhances predicate calculus [Boolos] |
| 10698 | Plural forms have no more ontological commitment than to first-order objects [Boolos] |
| 10700 | First- and second-order quantifiers are two ways of referring to the same things [Boolos] |
| 10699 | Does a bowl of Cheerios contain all its sets and subsets? [Boolos] |