A SHORTENED ABSTRACT FOR 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 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. Our findings are not only
curiosities---for example, to some extent they may allow for a nominalistic
theory of the world.


Original abstract:

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.