Single Idea 18167

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / c. Neo-logicism]

Full Idea

Recent commentators have noted that Frege's versions of the basic propositions of arithmetic can be derived from Hume's Principle alone, that the fatal Law V is only needed to derive Hume's Principle itself from the definition of number.

Gist of Idea

We can get arithmetic directly from HP; Law V was used to get HP from the definition of number

Source

Penelope Maddy (Naturalism in Mathematics [1997], I.1)

Book Reference

Maddy,Penelope: 'Naturalism in Mathematics' [OUP 2000], p.7


A Reaction

Crispin Wright is the famous exponent of this modern view. Apparently Charles Parsons (1965) first floated the idea.