Re: Existence of mathematical entities (Re: Successor Axiom: on what grounds TF?)

From: Mitch Harris (harrisq_at_tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de)
Date: 02/23/05 

Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:09:50 +0100

Paul Holbach wrote:
>>Mitch Harris wrote:
>>>Paul Holbach wrote:
>
>>>Certainly not!
>>>The topic <referential vs. irreferential singular terms>
>>>is independent
>>>of the topic
>>><realist vs. anti-realist philosophies of mathematics>.
>
>
>>What do you mean by "certainly not"? That's pretty much what Eray
>>said, existence does not follow/does not depend on reference. So are
>>you disagreeing with him or not?
>
>
> Let ">->" symbolize the relation of reference:
>
> ("a" >-> a) <-> Ex("a" >-> x)
>
> In words:
>
> "a" refers to a iff there is something x such that "a" refers to x.
>
> That is to say, the reference relation holds if and only if both
> relata, the singular term and the referent, exist. There is no such
> thing as genuine reference to nonexistents.

(but that makes it sound like there -is- some dependence between
reference and existence (if you take the realist vs antirealist
distinction to be one about existence)).

So do you disagree with him or not? 

-- 
Mitch Harris
(remove q to reply)

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