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Single Idea 11219

[filed under theme 2. Reason / D. Definition / 10. Stipulative Definition ]

Full Idea

Frege has defended the austere view that, in mathematics at least, only stipulative definitions should be countenanced.

Gist of Idea

Frege suggested that mathematics should only accept stipulative definitions

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (Logic in Mathematics [1914]) by Anil Gupta - Definitions 1.3

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.4


A Reaction

This sounds intriguingly at odds with Frege's well-known platonism about numbers (as sets of equinumerous sets). It makes sense for other mathematical concepts.