Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity

Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity
Author: Graham Oppy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2006-04-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1139455117

This book is an exploration of philosophical questions about infinity. Graham Oppy examines how the infinite lurks everywhere, both in science and in our ordinary thoughts about the world. He also analyses the many puzzles and paradoxes that follow in the train of the infinite. Even simple notions, such as counting, adding and maximising present serious difficulties. Other topics examined include the nature of space and time, infinities in physical science, infinities in theories of probability and decision, the nature of part/whole relations, mathematical theories of the infinite, and infinite regression and principles of sufficient reason.

Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity

Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity
Author: Graham Robert Oppy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: First philosophy
ISBN: 9781107167674

Exploring philosophical questions about infinity, Graham Oppy examines how the infinite lurks everywhere, both in science and in our ordinary thoughts about the world. He also analyzes the many puzzles and paradoxes that follow in the train of the infinite.

Infinity and Perspective

Infinity and Perspective
Author: Karsten Harries
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2001
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262582186

A philosophical exploration of the origin and limits of the modern world.

Infinity

Infinity
Author: Michael Heller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-01-02
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9781107685482

"The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite." - David Hilbert This interdisciplinary study of infinity explores the concept through the prism of mathematics and then offers more expansive investigations in areas beyond mathematical boundaries to reflect the broader, deeper implications of infinity for human intellectual thought. More than a dozen world‐renowned researchers in the fields of mathematics, physics, cosmology, philosophy, and theology offer a rich intellectual exchange among various current viewpoints, rather than displaying a static picture of accepted views on infinity. The book starts with a historical examination of the transformation of infinity from a philosophical and theological study to one dominated by mathematics. It then offers technical discussions on the understanding of mathematical infinity. Following this, the book considers the perspectives of physics and cosmology: Can infinity be found in the real universe? Finally, the book returns to questions of philosophical and theological aspects of infinity.

Infinity and the Mind

Infinity and the Mind
Author: Rudy Rucker
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2019-07-23
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0691191255

A dynamic exploration of infinity In Infinity and the Mind, Rudy Rucker leads an excursion to that stretch of the universe he calls the “Mindscape,” where he explores infinity in all its forms: potential and actual, mathematical and physical, theological and mundane. Using cartoons, puzzles, and quotations to enliven his text, Rucker acquaints us with staggeringly advanced levels of infinity, delves into the depths beneath daily awareness, and explains Kurt Gödel’s belief in the possibility of robot consciousness. In the realm of infinity, mathematics, science, and logic merge with the fantastic. By closely examining the paradoxes that arise, we gain profound insights into the human mind, its powers, and its limitations. This Princeton Science Library edition includes a new preface by the author.

Reading Philosophy of Religion

Reading Philosophy of Religion
Author: Graham Oppy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2010-04-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1405170824

Reading Philosophy of Religion combines a diverse selection of classical and contemporary texts in philosophy of religion with insightful commentaries. Offers a unique presentation through a combination of text and interactive commentary Provides a mix of classic and contemporary texts, including some not anthologized elsewhere Includes writings from thinkers such as Aquinas, Boethius, Hume, Plantinga and Putnam Divided into sections which examine religious language, the existence of God, reason, argument and belief, divine properties, and religious pluralism

Infinity in Early Modern Philosophy

Infinity in Early Modern Philosophy
Author: Ohad Nachtomy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2018-08-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319945564

This volume contains essays that examine infinity in early modern philosophy. The essays not only consider the ways that key figures viewed the concept. They also detail how these different beliefs about infinity influenced major philosophical systems throughout the era. These domains include mathematics, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, science, and theology. Coverage begins with an introduction that outlines the overall importance of infinity to early modern philosophy. It then moves from a general background of infinity (before early modern thought) up through Kant. Readers will learn about the place of infinity in the writings of key early modern thinkers. The contributors profile the work of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant. Debates over infinity significantly influenced philosophical discussion regarding the human condition and the extent and limits of human knowledge. Questions about the infinity of space, for instance, helped lead to the introduction of a heliocentric solar system as well as the discovery of calculus. This volume offers readers an insightful look into all this and more. It provides a broad perspective that will help advance the present state of knowledge on this important but often overlooked topic.

Aristotle on Mathematical Infinity

Aristotle on Mathematical Infinity
Author: Theokritos Kouremenos
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag
Total Pages: 142
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783515068512

Aristotle was the first not only to distinguish between potential and actual infinity but also to insist that potential infinity alone is enough for mathematics thus initiating an issue still central to the philosophy of mathematics. Modern scholarship, however, has attacked Aristotle's thesis because, according to the received doctrine, it does not square with Euclidean geometry and it also seems to contravene Aristotle's belief in the finitude of the physical universe. This monograph, the first thorough study of the issue, puts Aristotle's views on infinity in the proper perspective. Through a close study of the relevant Aristotelian passages it shows that the Stagirite's theory of infinity forms a well argued philosophical position which does not bear on his belief in a finite cosmos and does not undermine the Euclidean nature of geometry. The monograph draws a much more positive picture of Aristotle's views and reaffirms his disputed stature as a serious philosopher of mathematics. This innovative and stimulating contribution will be essential reading to a wide range of scholars, including classicists, philosophers of science and mathematics as well as historians of ideas.

Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality

Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality
Author: Ayon Maharaj
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2018-10-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190868244

Sri Ramakrishna is widely known as a nineteenth-century Indian mystic who affirmed the harmony of all religions on the basis of his richly varied spiritual experiences and eclectic religious practices, both Hindu and non-Hindu. In Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality, Ayon Maharaj argues that Sri Ramakrishna was also a sophisticated philosopher of great contemporary relevance. Through a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna's recorded oral teachings in the original Bengali, Maharaj reconstructs his philosophical positions and analyzes them from a cross-cultural perspective. Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual journey culminated in the exalted state of "vijñana," his term for the "intimate knowledge" of God as the Infinite Reality that is both personal and impersonal, with and without form, immanent in the universe and beyond it. This expansive spiritual standpoint of vijñana, Maharaj contends, opens up a new paradigm for addressing central issues in cross-cultural philosophy of religion, including divine infinitude, religious pluralism, mystical experience, and the problem of evil. Sri Ramakrishna's vijñana-based religious pluralism--when grasped in all its subtlety--proves to have major philosophical advantages over dominant Western models. Moreover, his mystical testimony and teachings not only cut across long-standing debates about the nature of mystical experience but also bolster recent defenses of its epistemic value. Maharaj further demonstrates that Sri Ramakrishna's unique response to the problem of evil resonates strongly with Western "soul-making" theodicies and contemporary theories of skeptical theism. A pioneering interdisciplinary study of one of India's most important philosopher-mystics, Maharaj's book is essential reading for scholars and students in philosophy of religion, theology, religious studies, and Hindu studies.

Truth, Objects, Infinity

Truth, Objects, Infinity
Author: Fabrice Pataut
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-02-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9783319459783

This volume features essays about and by Paul Benacerraf, whose ideas have circulated in the philosophical community since the early nineteen sixties, shaping key areas in the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of logic, and epistemology. The book started as a workshop held in Paris at the Collège de France in May 2012 with the participation of Paul Benacerraf. The introduction addresses the methodological point of the legitimate use of so-called “Princess Margaret Premises” in drawing philosophical conclusions from Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem. The book is then divided into three sections. The first is devoted to an assessment of the improved version of the original dilemma of “Mathematical Truth” due to Hartry Field: the challenge to the platonist is now to explain the reliability of our mathematical beliefs given the very subject matter of mathematics, either pure or applied. The second addresses the issue of the ontological status of numbers: Frege’s logicism, fictionalism, structuralism, and Bourbaki’s theory of structures are called up for an appraisal of Benacerraf’s negative conclusions of “What Numbers Could Not Be.” The third is devoted to supertasks and bears witness to the unique standing of Benacerraf’s first publication: “Tasks, Super-Tasks, and Modern Eleatics” in debates on Zeno’s paradox and associated paradoxes, infinitary mathematics, and constructivism and finitism in the philosophy of mathematics. Two yet unpublished essays by Benacerraf have been included in the volume: an early version of “Mathematical Truth” from 1968 and an essay on “What Numbers Could Not Be” from the mid 1970’s. A complete chronological bibliography of Benacerraf’s work to 2016 is provided.Essays by Jody Azzouni, Paul Benacerraf, Justin Clarke-Doane, Sébastien Gandon, Brice Halimi, Jon Pérez Laraudogoitia, Mary Leng, Antonio León-Sánchez and Ana C. León-Mejía, Marco Panza, Fabrice Pataut, Philippe de Rouilhan, Andrea Sereni, and Stewart Shapiro.