display all the ideas for this combination of texts
1 idea
13881 | We need to grasp not number-objects, but the states of affairs which make number statements true [Frege, by Wright,C] |
Full Idea: For Frege (as opposed to Gödel) the epistemological aim is not to relate to the objects which are the subject-matter of number theory, but to relate to the states of affairs that make for the truth of number-theoretic statements. | |
From: report of Gottlob Frege (Grundlagen der Arithmetik (Foundations) [1884]) by Crispin Wright - Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects 1.v | |
A reaction: I am beginning to see that this is a key issue in modern philosophy, of whether we build our metaphysics on the things of the world or on the truths about the world. I vote for the things, because the other way slides into anti-realism. |