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6104 | Numbers are classes of classes, and hence fictions of fictions [Russell] |
Full Idea: Numbers are classes of classes, and classes are logical fictions, so that numbers are, as it were, fictions at two removes, fictions of fictions. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (The Philosophy of Logical Atomism [1918], §VIII) | |
A reaction: This summarises the findings of Russell and Whitehead's researches into logicism. Gödel may have proved that project impossible, but there is now debate about that. Personally I think of numbers as names of patterns. |