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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The Thesis that Mathematics is Logic' and 'The Question of Ontology'

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6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 5. Definitions of Number / c. Fregean numbers

12215	The existence of numbers is not a matter of identities, but of constituents of the world [Fine,K]
	Full Idea: On saying that a particular number exists, we are not saying that there is something identical to it, but saying something about its status as a genuine constituent of the world.
	From: Kit Fine (The Question of Ontology [2009], p.168)
	A reaction: This is aimed at Frege's criterion of identity, which is to be an element in an identity relation, such as x = y. Fine suggests that this only gives a 'trivial' notion of existence, when he is interested in a 'thick' sense of 'exists'.