Philosophy of infinity
Welcome to the Wikiversity learning project about the Philosophy of Infinity.
Introduction
[edit | edit source]Infinity is a useful concept for mathematicians and some philosophers have imagined that there are actual infinities such as infinite time, infinite space and an infinite god. Ludwig Wittgenstein had reservations about the existence of actual infinities. "Let's imagine a man whose life goes back for an infinite time and who says to us: 'I'm just writing down the last digit to Pi and it's 2. Every day of his life he has written down a digit, without ever having begun; he has just finished. This seems utter nonsense, and a reductio ad absurdum of the concept of infinite totality." (Philosophical Remarks, p. 166)[1]
Discussion
[edit | edit source]The Pythagoreans imagined that numbers constitute the true nature of things. Max Tegmark has explored the idea that "all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically". What form might experimental evidence for infinity take?
If all structures that exist mathemmatically also exist physically; coulnt the nonphysical represent infinity? - Jas.
See also
[edit | edit source]- Philosophy of Mathematics/Cardinality - example of how mathematics deals with infinity.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Philosophical Remarks by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Edited by Rush Rhees and Raymond Hargreaves. Translated by Maximilian A. E. Aue. (1975).