Considering the first section compresses 1600 years of thoughts it would be surprising if it weren't difficult to digest.
Is nothing really qualitatively different from something? Some greeks held that numbering started at 2, because 1 of something is not a "number of things". It took much longer after 1 was generally accepted as a whole number for 0 to be. These days we often look askance at formal systems which don't have an identity.
(going further back, many old languages have a plural that applies to 3 or more, because 2 of something gets the dual, with its own marking)
Is nothing really qualitatively different from something? Some greeks held that numbering started at 2, because 1 of something is not a "number of things". It took much longer after 1 was generally accepted as a whole number for 0 to be. These days we often look askance at formal systems which don't have an identity.
(going further back, many old languages have a plural that applies to 3 or more, because 2 of something gets the dual, with its own marking)