Timeline for Is infinity a concept or a word empty of meaning?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
46 events
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| Jun 2 at 10:34 | answer | added | Mikhail Katz | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 31 at 8:26 | history | edited | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 23 at 13:12 | history | edited | Julius Hamilton |
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| Apr 8 at 8:42 | answer | added | AccidentalTaylorExpansion | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 7 at 14:41 | comment | added | lucasbachmann | youtu.be/23I5GS4JiDg?si=nB7PS2R4THaKrc0a there are lots of infinities | |
| Apr 7 at 8:28 | answer | added | Michael Kay | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 6 at 18:07 | answer | added | Mozibur Ullah | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 6 at 18:01 | history | edited | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 6 at 9:04 | answer | added | 21stCenturyParadox | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 6 at 6:04 | answer | added | Anixx | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 6 at 5:27 | answer | added | Davislor | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 5 at 21:20 | comment | added | Sidharth Ghoshal | "But it's obvious that the fact that there is also odd numbers implies that the set of all numbers is greater than the set of even numbers." This is where your usage of infinity drifts from math. To the set theorist there are TRULY the same "amount" of even numbers as odd numbers as natural numbers. This is not contradictory even though the "natural numbers" contain an entire copy of each. If we insist that "set A containing set B and more stuff MEANS set A is bigger" then our notion of "bigness" is different than the standard mathematical one, which is fine to ponder but we should be careful! | |
| Apr 5 at 21:09 | answer | added | Michael Carey | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 5 at 18:35 | comment | converted from answer | daniel | Sometimes people confused between abuse of notation and semantic meaning and the axiom that define something. You may say infinity is a number bigger then any number or what would happend in case you keep increasing number . So infinity depends on the context | |
| Apr 5 at 16:36 | answer | added | JOHNS WOOD GADGETS | timeline score: -2 | |
| Apr 5 at 15:34 | answer | added | Harrison Paine | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 5 at 15:31 | history | edited | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 5 at 15:04 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Apr 5 at 14:45 | comment | added | kouty | @ScottRowe you write very profound. I'm sorry if I don't get it easily. | |
| Apr 5 at 14:18 | comment | added | Scott Rowe | I'm sorry if I spoke wrongly. I thought I was saying that concepts are things we make up, and so they can be helpful, harmful, incoherent, contradictory, impossible... Just like every mental phenomenon that humans have. No better, no worse, not privileged, special, reliable, safe... My joke at the end was that Philosophy is our tool for working with concepts, and it is also, surprise! a concept. No help there. We can't define our problems away, sadly. We apparently can't even define what is a problem and what isn't, how to decide, or what to do if we manage to accomplish that. Dead end. | |
| Apr 5 at 13:50 | vote | accept | kouty | ||
| Apr 5 at 13:43 | history | edited | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 5 at 13:41 | answer | added | ac15 | timeline score: 10 | |
| Apr 5 at 12:23 | comment | added | kouty | @ScottRowe I don't agree with you. The example I give demonstrates the problem with the concept of infinite. The quantity of even numbers are obviously the half of the quantity of all numbers. But the lack of mastery of the meaning of infinite leads to a different result. You are just saying that one needs to accept it. It's wrong. | |
| Apr 5 at 11:58 | comment | added | Scott Rowe | You are saying you cannot think about something because you can't grasp it effectively with your mind, yes? Concepts are like tools, a lever to move something that would be too heavy without it. The right concepts extend your mind's ability, if used correctly. You can clear a lot of ground with a bulldozer, and also cause a lot of destruction with one. You can also invent new machines which may or may not be functional or a good idea. How do we decide what concepts are functional or a good idea? Philosophy. We just have to define it correctly... | |
| Apr 5 at 11:21 | answer | added | How why e | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 5 at 10:37 | vote | accept | kouty | ||
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| Apr 5 at 9:15 | comment | added | Mauro ALLEGRANZA | An then there is the "hierarchy" of infinities typical of modern set theory. | |
| Apr 5 at 9:13 | comment | added | Mauro ALLEGRANZA | Regarding natural numbers, the "inexhaustible number of numbers" is potential infinity: the unlimited possibility of iterating the operation +1. Thus, for every person asserting that there is "the largest" number N, we can simply responf with N+1. This is one very clear concept of infinity. But there are others, like those connected to the continuum. | |
| Apr 5 at 8:54 | answer | added | Marco Ocram | timeline score: 6 | |
| Apr 5 at 8:53 | answer | added | Rushi | timeline score: 11 | |
| Apr 5 at 8:30 | history | edited | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 5 at 8:29 | comment | added | kouty | @Conifold I can say that I cannot think about infinity because my finite meaning cannot grasp even conceptually non finite objects, despite that there are perhaps infinite objects. | |
| Apr 5 at 8:22 | comment | added | kouty | @Conifold I'm confused. I think I don't understand your last comment. | |
| Apr 5 at 8:19 | comment | added | Conifold | Mathematics is knowledge and so are scientific theories that use it. That is irrelevant though, concepts do not have to be part of knowledge to be concepts. | |
| Apr 5 at 8:16 | history | edited | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 5 at 8:08 | comment | added | kouty | @Conifold good. But for example, science fiction is not knowledge. | |
| Apr 5 at 8:06 | comment | added | kouty | @Rushi first, I'm not at all English speaker. My point is that the process of formation of the words is a strange process and by the way the content becomes doubtful. | |
| Apr 5 at 7:54 | comment | added | Rushi | Yeah thats fine. But why the word "word"? And not the phrase "empty of content"? | |
| Apr 5 at 7:49 | comment | added | Mauro ALLEGRANZA | infinity is a concept expressed by the word "infinity". In many contexts (mathematics, philosophy) we use the word and thus we assume that the word is meaningful (it is not a nonsense word); if so, there is a concept and a good part of modern mathematics and philosophy tried to elucidate it. | |
| Apr 5 at 7:49 | comment | added | kouty | @Rush The antinomies in Kant if I remember right, show that there are some questions that are empty from content regarding the proof of the existence/non existence of god | |
| Apr 5 at 7:37 | comment | added | Rushi | Your title question is strange: "horse" is a word and corresponds to a real animal, hence concept. "unicorn" is also a word but corresponds to a fictional animal; a different concept. One could go further and say "pringolam" is a word and does not yet have an assigned concept. I think what you mean to ask is something like: Is infinity something real or is it just an empty word? (like pringolam or at most unicorn) | |
| Apr 5 at 7:26 | answer | added | Jo Wehler | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 5 at 7:17 | comment | added | Conifold | Concepts are what can be thought and reasoned about in systematic ways. They do not have to directly correspond to anything in the real world or even be useful. Fictional stories are full of such non-corresponding concepts, and even physical models are (ideal fluid, for example). Infinity is reasoned about coherently, and models that use it in much more sophisticated ways than you describe (in calculus and algebra, say) are successfully applied to describing and predicting the real world. So it is a perfectly "non-empty" concept, and even a useful one at that. | |
| Apr 5 at 7:12 | comment | added | Mauro ALLEGRANZA | See Infinity: "Infinity is a big topic. Most people have some conception of things that have no bound, no boundary, no limit, no end. " | |
| Apr 5 at 7:00 | history | asked | kouty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |