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Single Idea 13892

[filed under theme 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / c. Priority of numbers ]

Full Idea

Someone could be clear about number identities, and distinguish numbers from other things, without conceiving them as ordered in a progression at all. The point of them would be to make comparisons between sizes of groups.

Gist of Idea

One could grasp numbers, and name sizes with them, without grasping ordering

Source

Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983], 3.xv)

Book Ref

Wright,Crispin: 'Frege's Conception of Numbers' [Scots Philosophical Monographs 1983], p.118


A Reaction

Hm. Could you grasp size if you couldn't grasp which of two groups was the bigger? What's the point of noting that I have ten pounds and you only have five, if you don't realise that I have more than you? You could have called them Caesar and Brutus.

Related Ideas

Idea 13893 It is 1-1 correlation of concepts, and not progression, which distinguishes natural number [Wright,C]

Idea 13894 Sameness of number is fundamental, not counting, despite children learning that first [Wright,C]