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Single Idea 7804

[filed under theme 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / c. Neo-logicism ]

Full Idea

Crispin Wright has reactivated Frege's logistic program, which for decades just about everybody assumed was a lost cause.

Gist of Idea

Wright has revived Frege's discredited logicism

Source

report of Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983]) by José A. Benardete - Logic and Ontology 3

Book Ref

'A Companion of Philosophical Logic', ed/tr. Jacquette,Dale [Blackwell 2002], p.354


A Reaction

[This opens Bernadete's section called "Back to Strong Logicism?"]


The 38 ideas from Crispin Wright

The attempt to define numbers by contextual definition has been revived [Wright,C, by Fine,K]
An expression refers if it is a singular term in some true sentences [Wright,C, by Dummett]
Wright has revived Frege's discredited logicism [Wright,C, by Benardete,JA]
Wright thinks Hume's Principle is more fundamental to cardinals than the Peano Axioms are [Wright,C, by Heck]
We derive Hume's Law from Law V, then discard the latter in deriving arithmetic [Wright,C, by Fine,K]
Frege has a good system if his 'number principle' replaces his basic law V [Wright,C, by Friend]
Wright says Hume's Principle is analytic of cardinal numbers, like a definition [Wright,C, by Heck]
Contextually defined abstract terms genuinely refer to objects [Wright,C, by Dummett]
Logicism seemed to fail by Russell's paradox, Gödel's theorems, and non-logical axioms [Wright,C]
There are five Peano axioms, which can be expressed informally [Wright,C]
Number truths are said to be the consequence of PA - but it needs semantic consequence [Wright,C]
What facts underpin the truths of the Peano axioms? [Wright,C]
Number theory aims at the essence of natural numbers, giving their nature, and the epistemology [Wright,C]
We can only learn from philosophers of the past if we accept the risk of major misrepresentation [Wright,C]
Instances of a non-sortal concept can only be counted relative to a sortal concept [Wright,C]
Number platonism says that natural number is a sortal concept [Wright,C]
We can't use empiricism to dismiss numbers, if numbers are our main evidence against empiricism [Wright,C]
Sortal concepts cannot require that things don't survive their loss, because of phase sortals [Wright,C]
A concept is only a sortal if it gives genuine identity [Wright,C]
'Sortal' concepts show kinds, use indefinite articles, and require grasping identities [Wright,C]
Treating numbers adjectivally is treating them as quantifiers [Wright,C]
Singular terms in true sentences must refer to objects; there is no further question about their existence [Wright,C]
We can accept Frege's idea of object without assuming that predicates have a reference [Wright,C]
A milder claim is that understanding requires some evidence of that understanding [Wright,C]
The best way to understand a philosophical idea is to defend it [Wright,C]
The idea that 'exist' has multiple senses is not coherent [Wright,C]
If apparent reference can mislead, then so can apparent lack of reference [Wright,C]
Entities fall under a sortal concept if they can be used to explain identity statements concerning them [Wright,C]
If numbers are extensions, Frege must first solve the Caesar problem for extensions [Wright,C]
It is 1-1 correlation of concepts, and not progression, which distinguishes natural number [Wright,C]
One could grasp numbers, and name sizes with them, without grasping ordering [Wright,C]
Sameness of number is fundamental, not counting, despite children learning that first [Wright,C]
The Peano Axioms, and infinity of cardinal numbers, are logical consequences of how we explain cardinals [Wright,C]
The aim is to follow Frege's strategy to derive the Peano Axioms, but without invoking classes [Wright,C]
The standard objections are Russell's Paradox, non-logical axioms, and Gödel's theorems [Wright,C]
If we can establish directions from lines and parallelism, we were already committed to directions [Wright,C]
Holism cannot give a coherent account of scientific methodology [Wright,C, by Miller,A]
Logical necessity involves a decision about usage, and is non-realist and non-cognitive [Wright,C, by McFetridge]