Full Idea
Numbers are our major means of making the world manageable. We comprehend as far as we can count, i.e. as far as a constancy can be perceived.
Gist of Idea
Numbers enable us to manage the world - to the limits of counting
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 34[058])
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Fragments from 1885-86 (v 16)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2020], p.15
A Reaction
I don't agree with 'major', but it is a nice thought. The intermediate concept is a 'unit', which means identifying something as a 'thing', which is how we seem to grasp the world. So to what extent do we comprehend the infinite. Enter Cantor…