Single Idea 10004

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 4. Objectification]

Full Idea

Our minds mainly reason about objects. Most cognitive problems we are faced with deal with particular objects, whether they are people or material things. Reasoning about them is what our minds are good at.

Gist of Idea

Our minds are at their best when reasoning about objects

Source

Thomas Hofweber (Number Determiners, Numbers, Arithmetic [2005], §4.3)

Book Reference

-: 'Philosophical Review 114' [Phil Review 2005], p.199


A Reaction

Hofweber is suggesting this as an explanation of why we continually reify various concepts, especially numbers. Very plausible. It works for qualities of character, and explains our tendency to talk about universals as objects ('redness').

Related Idea

Idea 19490 Make-believe can help us to reason about facts and scientific procedures [Yablo]