 Hodes has formulated a semantical variant of Benacerraf’s epistemological problem (Hodes 1984). According to our currently best semantic theory, causal-historical connections between humans and the world of concreta enable our words to refer to physical entities and properties. According to platonism, mathematics refers to abstract entities. The platonist therefore owes us a plausible account of how we (physically embodied humans) are able to refer to them. On the face of it, it appears that the causal theory of reference will be unable to supply us with the required account of the ‘microstructure of reference’ of mathematical discourse.