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Single Idea 11031

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 5. Numbers as Adjectival]

Full Idea

'Jupiter has four moons' is semantically and syntactically on all fours with 'Jupiter has many moons'. But it would be brave to construe the latter proposition as a transformation of 'The number of Jupiter's moons is identical with the number many'.

Gist of Idea

'Jupiter has many moons' won't read as 'The number of Jupiter's moons equals the number many'

Source

comment on Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Ian Rumfitt - Concepts and Counting p.49

Book Reference

-: 'Aristotelian Society' [], p.49


A Reaction

I take this to be an important insight. Number words are continuous with (are in the same category as) words for general numerical quantity, such as 'just a few' or 'many' or 'rather a lot'. Numbers are part of normal language.

Related Idea

Idea 8645 Convert "Jupiter has four moons" into "the number of Jupiter's moons is four" [Frege]