Knowledge and the Philosophy of Number: What Numbers are and How they Are Known

by Keith Hossack, Christopher Gauker, Johannes L. Brandl, Mark Textor, Max Kolbel

Overview

If numbers were objects, how could there be human knowledge of number? Numbers are not physical objects: must we conclude that we have a mysterious power of perceiving the abstract realm? Or should we instead conclude that numbers are fictions?

This book argues that numbers are not objects: they are magnitude properties. Properties are not fictions and we certainly have scientific knowledge of them. Much is already known about magnitude properties such as inertial mass and electric charge, and much continues to be discovered. The book says the same is true of numbers.

In the theory of magnitudes, the categorial distinction between quantity and individual is of central importance, for magnitudes are properties of quantities, not properties of individuals. Quantity entails divisibility, so the logic of quantity needs mereology, the a priori logic of part and whole. The three species of quantity are pluralities, continua and series, and the book presents three variants of mereology, one for each species of quantity.

Given Euclid's axioms of equality, it is possible without the use of set theory to deduce the axioms of the natural, real and ordinal numbers from the respective mereologies of pluralities, continua and series. Knowledge and the Philosophy of Number carries out these deductions, arriving at a metaphysics of number that makes room for our a priori knowledge of mathematical reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350102903
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/20/2020
Series:	Mind, Meaning and Metaphysics
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Keith Hossack is Reader in Philosophy, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.

Max Kölbel is ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. Properties
2. Frege's Theory of Concepts
3. The Logic of Quantity
4. Mereology
5. The Homomorphism Theorem
6. The Natural Numbers
7. Multiplication
8. Ratio
9. Geometry
10. The Ordinals
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.” - CHOICE

“Hossack's book revives the ancient view that numbers are magnitudes and thus a special kind of property, which are instantiated in the physical world. This view receives a powerful mathematical and philosophical development and defense. The book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in metaphysics or the philosophy of mathematics.” —Øystein Linnebo, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oslo, Norway

From the Publisher