ABSTRACT SUBMITTED TO THE SWEDISH CONGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY 2026
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TITLE:
On Caesar=0

AUTHORS:
Eric Johannesson       (eric@ericjohannesson.com)
Anders E.V. Lundstedt  (a@anderslundstedt.se)


Frege found it problematic that his logicist project did not rule out the
identification of Caesar with the number zero. Since the logicist
project---together with its later reincarnations---must be given up on, the
problem in its original formulation is no longer of interest. We nevertheless
treat the question ‘Is Caesar=0?’. We show the perhaps surprising result that it
is perfectly consistent with our best scientific theories that Caesar=0. More
generally, we show that any “abstract object” may be identified with a
space-time object; furthermore, the number of abstracts objects that may be
simultaneously identified with space-time objects is equal to the cardinality of
the set of space-time objects. Our findings are not only curiosities---for
example, to some extent they may allow for a nominalistic theory of the world.