Abstract Objects (Philosophical Theory)

The case for believing that there are abstract objects of various kinds, including those most discussed by philosophers, for example numbers and sets, is, in essence, very simple: we believe to be true many statements whose truth requires the existence of objects which, on any reasonable construal of the abstract/concrete distinction, are abstract. Familiar and plausible views concerning thought, reference and knowledge seem to leave no room for understanding abstract objects. Bob Hale develops the case for a broadly Fregean Platonism in this defence of a new view of abstract objects.