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Full Idea
It is only by making as if to countenance numbers that one can give expression in English to a fact having nothing to do with numbers, a fact about stars and planets and how they are numerically proportioned.
Gist of Idea
We must treat numbers as existing in order to express ourselves about the arrangement of planets
Source
Stephen Yablo (Apriority and Existence [2000], §13)
Book Ref
'New Essays on the A Priori', ed/tr. Boghossian,P /Peacocke,C [OUP 2000], p.216
A Reaction
To avoid the phrase 'numerically proportioned', he might have alluded to the 'pattern' of the stars and planets. I'm not sure which -ism this is, but it seems to me a good approach. The application is likely to precede the theory.
| 8858 | Philosophers keep finding unexpected objects, like models, worlds, functions, numbers, events, sets, properties [Yablo] |
| 8859 | The main modal logics disagree over three key formulae [Yablo] |
| 8862 | Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors [Yablo] |
| 8861 | Hardly a word in the language is devoid of metaphorical potential [Yablo] |
| 8863 | We must treat numbers as existing in order to express ourselves about the arrangement of planets [Yablo] |
| 8864 | We quantify over events, worlds, etc. in order to make logical possibilities clearer [Yablo] |
| 8865 | If 'the number of Democrats is on the rise', does that mean that 50 million is on the rise? [Yablo] |