That is: there exists at least one thing that is a product (at least one thing that, for some \(x\) and some \(y\) is the product of \(x\) and \(y\)). And a product must be a number, for the operation “product of” applies only to numbers. Our little theory, at least if it is recast in the way shown above, is therefore, in a very obvious sense, “committed” to the existence of numbers. It would seem, therefore, that a nominalist cannot consistently affirm that theory. (In this example, the role played by ‘the predicate F’ in the abstract statement of Quine's “observation” is played by the predicate ‘…=…×…’.)