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Single Idea 8884

[from 'Beyond internal Foundations to external Virtues' by Ernest Sosa, in 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 4. Mathematical Empiricism / c. Against mathematical empiricism ]

Full Idea

You could detect the absence of an eleven-dot pattern without having counted the dots, so your phenomenal concept of that array is not an arithmetical concept, and its content will not yield that its dots do indeed number eleven.

Gist of Idea

The phenomenal concept of an eleven-dot pattern does not include the concept of eleven

Source

Ernest Sosa (Beyond internal Foundations to external Virtues [2003], 7.3)

Book Reference

Bonjour,L/Sosa,E: 'Epistemic Justification' [Blackwells 2003], p.128


A Reaction

Sosa is discussing foundational epistemology, but this draws attention to the gulf that has to be leaped by structuralists. If eleven is not derived from the pattern, where does it come from? Presumably two eleven-dotters are needed, to map them.