(aside) literals, literal tokens in a graph

Pat Hayes said (paraphrased)

> How can you put NUMBERS in a GRAPH?

I ought to say that I've got no problem with using literal tokens in the
graph; however, I'd like some clarification of this.

"Consider the set of reals."

Hang on, how can you put a NUMBER into a SET? And since a graph is just
a set as well, where's the problem?

As far as I can see this complaint stems from the (trivial?) distinction
about whether a set contains things or names of things. Is that all that
there is to it? Help! I'm beginning to believe that I'll never be able
to think of a number again. Everything looks like a metaphor suddenly!

Popping out of existence,
jan

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jan grant, ILRT, University of Bristol. http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/
Tel +44(0)117 9287088 Fax +44 (0)117 9287112 RFC822 jan.grant@bris.ac.uk
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