Re:What Even Is a Number?
by carapace on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @05:38PM
(#19203607)
Reflecting on this stuff is my golf...
Even if I agree that THE number "one" is "just another broad category that a single apple fits in to", I think the epistemological status of the Broad Category is then itself just as problematical, existence-wise, as the original concept of "number", eh? We can at least display a pair of apples and "count" to "two" with them, etc. What hope do we have of enumerating (no pun intended) the Broad Category of "one"? And what do we gain from introducing it?
Even if I agree that THE number "one" is "just another broad category that a single apple fits in to", I think the epistemological status of the Broad Category is then itself just as problematical, existence-wise, as the original concept of "number", eh? We can at least display a pair of apples and "count" to "two" with them, etc. What hope do we have of enumerating (no pun intended) the Broad Category of "one"? And what do we gain from introducing it?