Single Idea 10000

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 5. Numbers as Adjectival]

Full Idea

Determiner uses of number words may disappear on analysis. This is inspired by Russell's elimination of the word 'the'. The number becomes blocks of first-order quantifiers at the level of semantic representation.

Gist of Idea

We might eliminate adjectival numbers by analysing them into blocks of quantifiers

Source

Thomas Hofweber (Number Determiners, Numbers, Arithmetic [2005], §2)

Book Reference

-: 'Philosophical Review 114' [Phil Review 2005], p.183


A Reaction

[compressed] The proposal comes from platonists, who argue that numbers cannot be analysed away if they are objects. Hofweber says the analogy with Russell is wrong, as 'the' can't occur in different syntactic positions, the way number words can.