[FOM] Quotation from Frege

Sara L. Uckelman suckelma at illc.uva.nl
Sun Nov 27 12:57:56 EST 2005


Dean Buckner wrote:
> I have searched in all the obvious places but cannot find it.  It is
> something like "it is odd that the most exact of sciences [i.e.
> mathematics] should seek support from psychology, a science that is
> feeling its way none too surely .." .  
> 
> Grateful to anyone who can locate the source of this.  I had thought the
> Grundgesetze, but it seems to have disappeared from my copy.

It's in the _Foundations_.  Austin's translation (second revised 
edition) p. 38 says:

"Weird and wonderful, as we see, are the results of taking seriously the 
suggestion that number is an idea.  And we are driven to the conclusion 
that number is neither spatial nor physical, like Mill's piles of 
pebbles and gingersnaps, nor yet subjective like ideas, but non-sensible 
and objective.  Now objectivity cannot, of course, be based on any 
sense-impression, which as an affection of our mind is entirely 
subjective, but only, so far as I can see, on the reason.

"It would be strange if the most exact of all the sciences had to seek 
support from psychology, which is still feeling its way none too surely."

-Sara Uckelman

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