Re: Simple Question and the philosophy of infinity


"Jonathan Kirwan" <jkirwan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:na7oh2pmlghk395ksdlrpbtrcgpf7rdp1l@xxxxxxxxxx
Of course there IS such a thing as "infinite."

Really? Show me a thing that is denoted by an adjective ;-)

"Infinite sum."

You're not following the grammatical intricacies. Maybe I should have
written: "Show me an 'infinite'".

This gives me a chance to put right and left next to each other in a
sentence:

A point is a "dimensionless geometric object" and is, if I have it
right, left as undefinied in math.

Let me put it into the correct order: "If undefined a dimensionless
geometric object you left, right you are!"
(a bit Yoda-like ;-)

How can you be sure that they aren't more than infinite in number?

By failing to find a way to prove it, I suppose.

If my teachers had accepted that as an answer, my math classes would have
been much easier!

I'm not disputing whether your mathematical concept of "infinity" or of
points or lines is correct or not. They are mathematical tools that work
fine for those who know how to deal with them. But in reality you are not
likely to ever encounter "infinity", so you can't have an immediate, sensual
experience of it.

I like the post you quoted. You nicely described the way mathematical ideas
evolved out of the pure mind.
In my previous post, that from which this discussion originated, I wrote:
'On the other hand, this is a play on our inability to conceive "infinite".
There is no such thing, so our experience is absolutely worthless.'

Maybe you are not unable to conceive 'infinite'. Maybe you know exactly what
you are talking about. That's fine.

Anyway, I'm glad I was wrong about the 0 ohms. Imagine the universe was
infinite! We'd have short-circuits everywhere! ;-)

Regards,

Leo


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