Numerosities are not ersatz numbers. (15th December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dutilh Novaes, Catarina; dos Santos, César Frederico
• Is Part Of: Behavioral and brain sciences. Volume 44(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-12-15
• Subjects: Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Human behavior -- Periodicals; Animal behavior -- Periodicals; Brain -- Periodicals; 616.89142
• DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X21000984
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0140-525X

Abstract

Abstract: In describing numerosity as "a kind of ersatz number, " Clarke and Beck fail to consider a familiar and compelling definition of numerosity, which conceptualizes numerosity as the cognitive counterpart of the mathematical concept of cardinality; numerosity is the magnitude, whereas number is a scale through which numerosity/cardinality is measured. We argue that these distinctions should be considered.