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Robert Schwarzkopff

@testanera.bsky.social

I used to be an academic philosopher that dabbled in linguistics. Then I worked at the Philosophy Department in Hamburg. Now I work in politics.

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Robert Schwarzkopff

@testanera.bsky.social

Abstract

Tracing back to at least Frege, genuine higher-orderism sharply distinguishes between objects and categorically distinct higher-order entities and the expressions that denote them. Against the background of this view, Frege himself felt compelled to regard numbers as objects rather than higher-level entities—concepts, in Frege’s terminology—because number words in arithmetical contexts appear to function as object-denoting expressions. In this paper, I argue that, from the perspective of natural language semantics, a case can be made that number words in such contexts function as concept-denoting rather than object-denoting expressions and that, consequently, numbers should be conceived of as concepts rather than objects. In developing this argument, I will develop a novel semantic analysis of expressions like ‘the number of Mars’ moons’ as higher-order definite descriptions. Moreover, the view developed in this paper will shed new light on so-called easy arguments for the existence of numbers.

November 6, 2025 at 4:28 PM

Robert Schwarzkopff

@testanera.bsky.social

Some professionell news.

Two years ago I was sad to (have to) leave academic philosophy.

Today I’m happy to announce that yesterday I’ve started as the new executive director of the Green Party’s group in Hamburg’s parliament.

#ichbinhanna gewesen #leavingacademia