Single Idea 17453

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / a. Numbers]

Full Idea

My knowing what the number '33' denotes cannot consist in my knowing that it denotes the number of decimal numbers between '1' and '33', because I would know that even if it were in hexadecimal (which I don't know well).

Gist of Idea

The meaning of a number isn't just the numerals leading up to it

Source

Richard G. Heck (Cardinality, Counting and Equinumerosity [2000], 5)

Book Reference

-: 'Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic' [-], p.200


A Reaction

Obviously you wouldn't understand '33' if you didn't understand what '33 things' meant.