Todd Suomela's Library tagged infinity →  View Popular, Search in Google

"This page is a selection of philosophical writings about infinity with links to other resources on the net. "

philosophy infinity

"When we discuss economies of abundance in the digital age, we’re assuming the low-cost production of very large finitudes. Plastic is this kind of thing, it’s the least expensive physical simile for a large range of objects. It also has the strange quality of sometimes having a lifespan that is five or six times that of an ordinary human. In this ecological age where we are newly surrounded by economies of abundance, what shall we do with our infinities? We can no longer send them away when we’ve annihilated distance through technology. The plastic as “plastic” waves to us from the gyres in the ocean. It will swirl there for our children and our children’s children. What ever shall we do with our infinities?"

ecology philosophy moral infinity plastic commons network online future

"One of the presentations was by Ole Peters, from the Department of Mathematics at the Imperial College of London. His presentation compared time series analysis with ensemble analysis. Time series analysis takes one realization of a process and runs it over a very long time period and then looks at the distribution over the course of that run, whereas ensemble analysis creates many copies of the process and runs these over a shorter period, and then looks at the distribution of those results. Time series analysis is what you see over many years in one universe, ensemble analysis is what you see when you take many universes and integrate across them to look at the distributional properties.
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economics statistics time-series analysis infinity limits econometrics rational choice chance probability wealth

why so? because in my book, infinity & the irrational are connected with the much-maligned "I" - that mysterious Subject - Shakespeare behind the arras - God - Keats' negrido - the Soul... & the great inimitable poets of all times are searching (elegantly, sublimely) beyond elegance...

poetry infinity philosophy literature criticism subjectivity

Number is different from quantity. This difference is basic for any sort of theorizing in behavioral science, any sort of imagining of what goes on between organisms or inside organisms as part of their processes of thought.

Numbers are the product of counting. Quantities are the product of measurement. This means that numbers can conceivably be accurate because there is a discontinuity between each integer and the next. Between two and three there is a jump. In the case of quantity there is no such jump, and because jump is missing in the world of quantity it is impossible for any quantity to be exact. You can have exactly three tomatoes. You can never have exactly three gallons of water. Always quantity is approximate.

by(GregoryBateson) number quantity philosophy infinity

in list: Philosophy Notes

mathematics number infinity

in list: Philosophy Notes

philosophy argument infinity fallacy epistemology justification

in list: Philosophy Notes

philosophy infinity paradox ancient greek

in list: Philosophy Notes

philosophy mathematics infinity about(DavidHilbert) wikipedia

in list: Philosophy Notes

You can see the confusion right away: "1/0 is infinity because ...". Bzzt. No. 1/0 is not infinity. 1/0 is nothing. 1/0 isn't defined in our number systems: it's not a number. In fact, it's not just not a number, it's nothing. It's a meaningless expression. Asking what 1/0 is is like asking "What's the square root of a nice juicy plum?". Or what predicate makes the logical statement "∀x: P(x)∧¬P(x)" true?

If you treat infinity as a number, you fundamentally break everything that makes arithmetic work.

mathematics infinity number definition fields peano-arithmetic