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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy' and 'The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed)'

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3 ideas

6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 5. Numbers as Adjectival
Maybe numbers are adjectives, since 'ten men' grammatically resembles 'white men' [Russell]
     Full Idea: 'Ten men' is grammatically the same form as 'white men', so that 10 might be thought to be an adjective qualifying 'men'.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [1919], XVIII)
     A reaction: The immediate problem, as Frege spotted, is that such expressions can be rephrased to remove the adjective (by saying 'the number of men is ten').
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / a. Early logicism
For Russell, numbers are sets of equivalent sets [Russell, by Benacerraf]
     Full Idea: Russell's own stand was that numbers are really only sets of equivalent sets.
     From: report of Bertrand Russell (Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [1919]) by Paul Benacerraf - Logicism, Some Considerations (PhD) p.168
     A reaction: Benacerraf is launching a nice attack on this view, based on our inability to grasp huge numbers on this basis, or to see their natural order.
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 10. Constructivism / e. Psychologism
There is always something psychological about inference [Russell]
     Full Idea: There is always unavoidably something psychological about inference.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [1919], XIV)
     A reaction: Glad to find Russell saying that. Only pure Fregeans dream of a logic that rises totally above the minds that think it. See Robert Hanna on the subject.