FOM: Exmple.for Hersh contra Tennant

[Robert S Tragesser]

Lebesgue:  '...that, "One must 
not confuse a number with the symbol that 
represents it," has no meaning for us.'

        In a recent posting, Tennant challenged Hersh
to give an example of a serious and 
philosophically reflective mathematician who 
maintains/ed that numbers are concrete.  See 
the first chapter of Henri Lebesgue's MEASURE 
AND INTEGRAL (Holden-Day,  1966).  Perhaps one 
has to speak here (pace Charles Parsons) of 
quasi-concreteness,  but Lebesque has a well 
thought out case (he was clearly aware of 
Frege's arguments),  sufficient to cause 
trouble for Tennant's (I think rather 
painfully over-simplified Platonism).  I can't 
type in much from Lebesgue,  but here is a 
teaser or leader from p.15 'that, "One must 
not confuse a number with the symbol that 
represents it," has no meaning for us.'
        rbrt tragesser