more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
The modal strategy for numbers is to replace assumptions about the actual existence of numbers by assumptions about the possible existence of numbers
Gist of Idea
We should talk about possible existence, rather than actual existence, of numbers
Source
JP Burgess / G Rosen (A Subject with No Object [1997], II.B.3.a)
Book Ref
Burgess,J/Rosen,G: 'A Subject with No Object' [OUP 1997], p.137
A Reaction
This seems to be quite a good way of dealing with very large numbers and infinities. It is not clear whether 5 is so regularly actualised that we must consider it as permanent, or whether it is just a prominent permanent possibility.