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Numerosities are not ersatz numbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2021

Catarina Dutilh Novaes Open the ORCID record for Catarina Dutilh Novaes [Opens in a new window]  and
César Frederico dos Santos
Catarina Dutilh Novaes
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, Netherlands. [email protected]://www.cdutilhnovaes.com
César Frederico dos Santos
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, Netherlands. [email protected]://www.cdutilhnovaes.com Department of Philosophy, Federal University of Maranhão, Av. dos Portugueses, 1966, 65080-805, São Luís, MA, Brazil. [email protected]@ufma.br
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Abstract

In describing numerosity as “a kind of ersatz number,” Clarke and Beck fail to consider a familiar and compelling definition of numerosity, which conceptualizes numerosity as the cognitive counterpart of the mathematical concept of cardinality; numerosity is the magnitude, whereas number is a scale through which numerosity/cardinality is measured. We argue that these distinctions should be considered.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e198
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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