I would highly recommend Paul Benacerraf's article "What Numbers Could Not Be" for a philosophical if somewhat technical take on the subject (PDF link): http://

I would highly recommend Paul Benacerraf's article "What Numbers Could Not Be" for a philosophical if somewhat technical take on the subject (PDF link): http://michaeljohnsonphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Benacerraf.pdf http://michaeljohnsonphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/... The thesis, broadly, revolves around contemplation about whether an number is an object, but the larger question is whether it's possible to have any small part of mathematics, even a single integer, which doesn't imply the whole (or at least, a significant structure).