[FOM] Who was the first to accept undefinable individuals in mathematics?

[Jon Awbrey]

WM,

I am not sure that writers on mathematics have
always used the same definition of "definition"
throughout history, so the question strikes me
as possibly vague.  I do know that C.S. Peirce
examined the concept of "individual" and often
contemplated objects that were not individuals,
or at least the possibility that logical atoms
are "realized neither in thought nor in sense",
but I am not sure that's what you have in mind.

At any rate, here's an entry point
for some potentially relevant bits
of text that I have been studying:

http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-January/thread.html#2320

Jon Awbrey

CC: Arisbe, Inquiry

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