Definitions by abstraction and Leibniz's notion of quantity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20143029 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Filippo Costantini (0000-0002-3391-7988, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage Ca' Foscari University Venice Italy, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 240-255 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theoria (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0040-5825 • E-ISSN: 1755-2567 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/theo.12523 |
| OpenAlex | W4394852598 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
This paper analyses the abstractionist account of quantity championed by Leibniz, especially in the 1680s. Leibniz introduced the notion of quantity in an indirect way, via an abstraction principle. In the first part of the paper, I identify the context in which this approach arose in light of Leibniz's criticism of his earlier dream of an ‘alphabet of human thought’. Recognising the impossibility of such a project led him to realise that, when dealing with terms referring to abstract objects, we should always consider them within the true sentences in which they occur. In the second part, I describe this approach in detail. This allows us to look at some key concepts of Leibniz's theory of quantity. In particular, I raise the problem of the relationship between the two sides of the abstraction principle: how should we think of the relation between the claim that a and b are equal, and the claim that the quantity of a is identical to the quantity of b ? I argue that we can find a positive answer to this problem in Leibniz
Abstraction · Alphabet · Context (archaeology) · Criticism · Dream · Epistemology · Impossibility · Key (lock) · Linguistics · Mathematical economics · Relation (database) · Computer Science · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |