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Full Idea
The means by which platonic objects are simulated is existential metaphor. Numbers are conjured up as metaphorical measures of cardinality.
Clarification
Cardinality answers 'How many?'
Gist of Idea
Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors
Source
Stephen Yablo (Apriority and Existence [2000], §12)
Book Ref
'New Essays on the A Priori', ed/tr. Boghossian,P /Peacocke,C [OUP 2000], p.214
A Reaction
'Fictional' might be a better word than 'metaphorical', since the latter usually implies some sort of comparison.
| 4533 | Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche] |
| 6104 | Numbers are classes of classes, and hence fictions of fictions [Russell] |
| 18159 | Higher cardinalities in sets are just fairy stories [Bostock] |
| 18155 | A fairy tale may give predictions, but only a true theory can give explanations [Bostock] |
| 8714 | Fictionalists say 2+2=4 is true in the way that 'Oliver Twist lived in London' is true [Field,H] |
| 18214 | Mathematics is only empirical as regards which theory is useful [Field,H] |
| 18216 | Abstractions can form useful counterparts to concrete statements [Field,H] |
| 18210 | Why regard standard mathematics as truths, rather than as interesting fictions? [Field,H] |
| 10579 | Putting numbers in quantifiable position (rather than many quantifiers) makes expression easier [Yablo] |
| 8862 | Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors [Yablo] |
| 22298 | Why is fictional arithmetic applicable to the real world? [Potter] |