 Thomae also remarks ‘the formal standpoint rids us of all metaphysical difficulties’ (ibid: 184). One main motivation then seems to be to block, avoid, or sidestep (in some way) any ontological commitment to a problematic realm of abstract objects. For standard mathematics entails a plethora of theorems affirming the existence of infinite realms of entities—numbers, functions, sets and so forth, entities which do not seem to be concrete. Formalists, in general, wish to divest themselves of any commitment to these domains which do, indeed, seem hard to fit into a thoroughly naturalistic conception of reality.