![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timeletsWe should consider different levels of abstraction that provide constraints (LoA-C) as multi-level concepts in Frege's system:
In search of a new concept that implies a large number of instantiations, we should consider it constrained by an existing higher-level concept that specifies at least the type of the new concept.
Frege realized that one and the same physical phenomena could be conceptualized in different ways, and that answers to the question ‘How many?’ only make sense once a concept F is supplied. Thus, one and the same physical entity might be conceptualized as consisting of 1 army, 5 divisions, 20 regiments, 100 companies, etc., and so the question ‘How many?’ only becomes legitimate once one supplies the concept being counted, such as army, division, regiment, or company (1884, §46).
Using this insight, Frege took true statements like ‘There are eight planets’ and ‘There are two authors of Principia Mathematica’ to be “second level” claims about the concepts planet and author of Principia Mathematica, respectively.
In search of a new concept that implies a large number of instantiations, we should consider it constrained by an existing higher-level concept that specifies at least the type of the new concept.
