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Full Idea
The invitation to number the instances of some non-sortal concept is intelligible only if it is relativised to a sortal.
Gist of Idea
Instances of a non-sortal concept can only be counted relative to a sortal concept
Source
Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983], 1.i)
Book Ref
Wright,Crispin: 'Frege's Conception of Numbers' [Scots Philosophical Monographs 1983], p.3
A Reaction
I take this to be an essentially Fregean idea, as when we count the boots when we have decided whether they fall under the concept 'boot' or the concept 'pair'. I also take this to be the traditional question 'what units are you using'?
Related Idea
Idea 13865 'Sortal' concepts show kinds, use indefinite articles, and require grasping identities [Wright,C]
| 17427 | Frege's 'isolation' could be absence of overlap, or drawing conceptual boundaries [Frege, by Koslicki] |
| 17437 | Non-arbitrary division means that what falls under the concept cannot be divided into more of the same [Frege, by Koslicki] |
| 17438 | Our concepts decide what is countable, as in seeing the leaves of the tree, or the foliage [Frege, by Koslicki] |
| 17426 | A concept creating a unit must isolate and unify what falls under it [Frege] |
| 17428 | Frege says counting is determining what number belongs to a given concept [Frege, by Koslicki] |
| 12154 | Are 'word token' and 'word type' different sorts of countable objects, or two ways of counting? [Geach, by Perry] |
| 17518 | Counting 'coin in this box' may have coin as the unit, with 'in this box' merely as the scope [Ayers] |
| 17516 | If counting needs a sortal, what of things which fall under two sortals? [Ayers] |
| 17529 | Maybe the concept needed under which things coincide must also yield a principle of counting [Wiggins] |
| 17530 | The sortal needed for identities may not always be sufficient to support counting [Wiggins] |
| 13867 | Instances of a non-sortal concept can only be counted relative to a sortal concept [Wright,C] |
| 17434 | We struggle to count branches and waves because our concepts lack clear boundaries [Koslicki] |