more from Kit Fine

Single Idea 10527

[catalogued under 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 7. Abstracta by Equivalence]

Full Idea

If an abstraction principle is going to be acceptable, then it should not 'inflate', i.e. it should not result in there being more abstracts than there are objects. By this mark Hume's Principle will be acceptable, but Frege's Law V will not.

Gist of Idea

An abstraction principle should not 'inflate', producing more abstractions than objects

Source

Kit Fine (Precis of 'Limits of Abstraction' [2005], p.307)

Book Reference

-: 'Philosophical Studies' [-], p.307


A Reaction

I take this to be motivated by my own intuition that abstract concepts had better be rooted in the world, or they are not worth the paper they are written on. The underlying idea this sort of abstraction is that it is 'shared' between objects.