Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 18:16:03
To: bhaskar-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
From: Louis Irwin <lirwin1-AT-ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: BHA: math's street address


Howard,

I strongly disagree with this statement:

"Boston, ... is a city in Massachusetts, but 'Boston,' a
word referring to that city, doesn't refer to any entity in the
world except gatherings of marks like the six letters you see on
your screen."

How is it possible for "Boston" to be, as you state, "a word referring to
that city" yet it "doesn't refer to any entity in the world except ... the
six letters"?  If it refers to the city, then it does not refer to the
marks, unless you think that the city is identical with the marks!
Use/mention seems so easy in principle and so difficult in practice.  Here
are six true sentences that will either clarify or confuse:

1. Boston is a city.

2. "Boston" refers to Boston.

3. "Boston" refers to a city.

4. "Boston" is an expression that contains six letters.

5. Boston is not an expression.

6. The expression used as subject of 1 and 5 (namely "Boston") refers to
Boston.

7. The expression used as subject of sentences 2, 3 and 4 (namely
""Boston"") does not refer to Boston.

8. The expression used as subject of sentences 2, 3 and 4 (namely
""Boston"") refers to "Boston". 

Also, it is contentious to say that "Boston" consists of the marks on my
screen. The marks on my screen are different from the marks on your screen
(mine are here, yours are there), so we would have to say there are many
expressions "Boston", indeed a new one every time someone writes it.  See
how easy it is to fall into nominalism?  Maybe by "marks" you meant to
refer to the the types of marks that exist independently of our respective
tokens.  See how easy it is to fall into Platonism?

I will contemplate the rest of your post later.  I just want to make the
final comment that if we are to be realists about numbers, then numer words
cannot be like "widget", which is understood to be non-existent.

Louis Irwin






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