Bad company tamed

Øystein Linnebo

pp. 371-391

in: Øystein Linnebo (ed), The bad company problem, Synthese 170 (3), 2009.

Abstract

The neo-Fregean project of basing mathematics on abstraction principles faces “the bad company problem,” namely that a great variety of unacceptable abstraction principles are mixed in among the acceptable ones. In this paper I propose a new solution to the problem, based on the idea that individuation must take the form of a well-founded process. A surprising aspect of this solution is that every form of abstraction on concepts is permissible and that paradox is instead avoided by restricting what concepts there are.

Cited authors

Frege Gottlob