Single Idea 12920

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / a. Units]

Full Idea

There is no multiplicity without true units.

Gist of Idea

There is no multiplicity without true units

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Antoine Arnauld [1686], 1687.04.30)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence', ed/tr. Mason,HT/Parkinson,GHR [Manchester UP 1967], p.121


A Reaction

Hence real numbers do not embody 'multiplicity'. So either they don't 'embody' anything, or they embody 'magnitudes'. Does this give two entirely different notions, of measure of multiplicity and measures of magnitude?

Related Idea

Idea 9147 Number cannot be defined as addition of ones, since that needs the number; it is a single act of abstraction [Fine,K on Leibniz]