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This chapter is logical in character. The focus is on the logical properties of one particular generic structure: the generic omega-sequence. I take the perspective that is internal to arithmetic, from which arithmetic investigates \emph{one} structure.
In this chapter I discuss how a conception of random variables can be developed within the framework of arbitrary object theory. As before, the discussion is example oriented. Moreover, the natural numbers again play a special role: particular attention is given to the way in which the generic $\omega$-sequence can be seen as a collection of random variables.
In this chapter I give an exposition of Fine's theory of arbitrary objects and compare it with my theory of arbitrary objects. Towards the end of the chapter I explain how Fine deploys his theory of arbitrary objects in applications to the philosophy of mathematics.
Building on the seminal work of Kit Fine in the 1980s, Leon Horsten here develops a new theory of arbitrary entities. He connects this theory to issues and debates in metaphysics, logic, and contemporary philosophy of mathematics, investigating the relation between specific and arbitrary objects and between specific and arbitrary systems of objects. His book shows how this innovative theory is highly applicable to problems in the philosophy of arithmetic, and explores in particular how arbitrary objects can engage with the nineteenth-century concept of variable mathematical quantities, how they are relevant for debates around mathematical structuralism, and how they can help our understanding of the concept of random variables in statistics. This fully worked through theory will open up new avenues within philosophy of mathematics, bringing in the work of other philosophers such as Saul Kripke, and providing new insights into the development of the foundations of mathematics from the eighteenth century to the present day.
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