Is Hume’s Principle analytic?

Abstract

The question of the analyticity of Hume's Principle (HP) is central to the neo-logicist project. We take on this question with respect to Frege's definition of analyticity, which entails that a sentence cannot be analytic if it can be consistently denied within the sphere of a special science. We show that HP can be denied within non-standard analysis and argue that if HP is taken to depend on Frege's definition of number, it isn't analytic, and if HP is taken to be primitive there is only a very narrow range of circumstances where it might be taken to be analytic.The latter discussion also sheds some light on the connections between the Bad Company and Caesar objections.