Why do philosophers of math care about linguistics?
Arguments in favor of the existence of mathematical entities like numbers can be divided into two broad kinds: on the one hand, we have those that start from mathematical practice as a given and postulate the existence of mathematical objects as part of the best explanation for mathematical practice being as its, usually, either because of its success as a scientific enterprise or because of its importance for other successful scientific and technological practices. On the other hand, there are those that, instead, take everyday linguistic practice as starting point and postulate the existence of mathematical objects as part of the best explanation of our usual linguistic practices being as they are. The overall general strategy in both cases is to argue that without numbers, it would be very hard to explain why things that we accept to be true – or at least, to be successful as claims about the world, like simple arithmetical truths like seventeen being prime, complex physical laws li