One of the great philosophers of mathematics Gottlob Frege made quite an issue of the fact that mathematicians didn’t know the…
One of the great philosophers of mathematics Gottlob Frege made quite an issue of the fact that mathematicians didn’t know the meaning of One. What is One? Nobody could answer coherently. Of course Frege answered, but his answer was no better, or even worse, than the previous ones. And so it has continued to this very day, strange and incredible as it is. We know all about so much mathematics, but we don’t know what it really is.
Reuben Hersh, What Kind of Thing Is a Number?, A Talk with Reuben Hersh [2.10.97], Edge