Single Idea 10699

[catalogued under 4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 8. Critique of Set Theory]

Full Idea

Is there, in addition to the 200 Cheerios in a bowl, also a set of them all? And what about the vast number of subsets of Cheerios? It is haywire to think that when you have some Cheerios you are eating a set. What you are doing is: eating the Cheerios.

Clarification

From the context, we can take Cheerios to be a breakfast cereal!

Gist of Idea

Does a bowl of Cheerios contain all its sets and subsets?

Source

George Boolos (To be is to be the value of a variable.. [1984], p.72)

Book Reference

Boolos,George: 'Logic, Logic and Logic' [Harvard 1999], p.72


A Reaction

In my case Boolos is preaching to the converted. I am particularly bewildered by someone (i.e. Quine) who believes that innumerable sets exist while 'having a taste for desert landscapes' in their ontology.