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Questions tagged [infinite]

34 questions
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Do all epistemologies suffer from the "regress of justifications" problem?

Aristotle describes the regress problem in his logical work Posterior Analytics I.2: b5. Some hold that, owing to the necessity of knowing the primary premisses, there is no scientific knowledge. Others think there is, but that all truths are…
Geremia
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Does Intelligent Design (ID) entail an infinite regress of designers, and if so, is that problematic?

We can arrive at an infinite regress of designers as follows: Suppose that X is so complex that it's considered to show evidence of design. Accordingly, we infer that an intelligent designer must be behind X. Let ID1 be this intelligent…
Mark
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Could there ever be evidence for an infinite being?

The God of Anselm is understood as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." From this definition, God can be presumed to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, perfectly free, uncaused, eternal, morally perfect, etc. God is fashioned as…
Bryson S.
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Arguments against eternal return

I have encountered the concept of eternal return e.g. in reading about Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) and Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC). This is one formulation from Nietzsche's The Will To Power: If the world may be thought of as a certain…
Drux
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Infinite past with a beginning?

I can conceive of an infinite past with a beginning. I can in fact represent this idea by a simple diagram, part analogical, part symbolic. So, to me, this idea is a logical possibility. I initially thought that nearly everyone should be able to do…
Speakpigeon
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How can God be temporal if he never began?

I was reading through this article and it says: What may be the dominant view of philosophers today is that he is temporal but everlasting; that is, God never began to exist and he never will go out of existence. He exists at each moment in…
Cannabijoy
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Why is infinite regress commonly discussed in the context of theology or metaphysics, when it implies a rather peculiar model of the universe?

I have witnessed infinite regress being used to "prove God as impossible" with the following objections: If god is the creator, who created god? If the universe needs to be intelligently designed, who intelligently designed the designer? If god is…
day care
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Does Descartes conclude that imperfection implies perfection?

In the third meditation, does Descartes' knowledge of his limitations, or his imperfections, lead to his conclusion that there must be something limitless, something perfect? In his third meditation, Descartes decides that he has an idea of some…
SwabianOrtolan
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Finite and infinite temporal duration

I am trying to wrap my head around different philosophical concepts of 'forever'. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there to be three versions of 'forever' in terms of temporal duration: Strictly eternal, timeless and atemporal: there is no…
Gareth Gilbert-Hughes
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Applying logic to the question of whether all of existence is infinite or not

Here, I use to exist as generally as possible; if it is an object, it exists; if it is conceivable, it exists; if it is anything, it exists; even the properties and relations themselves exist. Existence as a property, applies to absolutely…
user110391
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What importance, if any, do infinitesimals still have for philosophers?

What importance, if any, do infinitesimals still have to philosophers? It seems like many people are baffled by them. E.g., there's a slew of questions relating to Zeno on this site (not least by myself), and I hear that 0.999 is a common topic on…
user28474
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How can one determine, and justify, that something is infinite?

Can infinite things be measured and known? Imagine you stood on a long rope, and in the distance, you see that the rope continues past your vision. The further you walk on it, the more rope seems to appear. As far as you can see, it is infinite in…
Rafael Ferrer
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Actual infinite vs. Potential infinite

I'm looking for bibliography about the problem of Actual infinite vs. Potential infinite. I would appreciate information about papers or books treating this problem deeply, philosophical and historical remarks.
Evangelion045
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Was Wittgenstein a mathematical finitist?

Wittgenstein was a notorious critic of set theory, calling it "laughable nonsense". However, he also wholeheartedly rejected intuitionist logic of Brouwer and Weyl, saying "it is nonsense, all of it". After reading his 1939 lectures at Cambridge, I…
Dennis Kozevnikoff
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Who came up with the traversing an infinity model of a guy eternally walking on tiles that appear and vanish behind him

I had a debate last year where I got my idea from a scholarly source that I didn't cite at the time. I'm looking to find it again. As a rebuttal to the idea that an infinity cannot be traversed, this paper invited us to imagine a strange world where…
HappyLuke
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