It is generally thought that the fundamental concept of number is quantitative, pertaining to

the notion of "how many". As we see in the next chapter, this in turn is reducible to the
relation “exactly as many”, which in turn is reducible to “at least as many”. In the current
context, however, we regard the conceptually fundamental use of numbers to be as special
quantifier concepts, akin to universal and existential quantifiers. Numbers as objects in their
own right (the number 2, the number 3, etc.) are (logical or mental) constructions derived
from the quantifier concepts. We already have the universal and existential quantifiers. We
can also add numerical quantifiers, as is familiar to students of elementary logic. For example,
the sentence there are exactly two F’s can be rendered by the following formula: $x$y(x¹y &
"z(Fz «. z=x Ú z=y)) We can give similar definitions for every possible number of F’s. The
following is an initial segment of the infinite series of official definitions of the numerical
quantifiers. (D1.0) 0vF[v] ¸ ;$vF[v] (D1.1) 1vF[v] ¸ $x"v(F[v] « v=x) (D1.2) 2vF[v] ¸
$x$y(x¹y & "v(F[v] «. v=x Ú v=y)) (D1.3) 3vF[v] ¸ $x$y$z(x¹y & y¹z & y¹x & "v(F[v] «. v=x
Ú v=y Ú v=z))