Interview with Robinson Erhardt
In reply to Different sized infinities by Andrew Maclaren
Infinities
Thanks for checking out the interview! Just to start with your last point, there is definitely an open question (which people often forget) about whether everything mathematicians say about infinity can just be transferred to the kind of debate that was had in antiquity and the middle ages. For instance paradoxes might arise with infinitely large bodies that don't do so with infinitely large sets. Still, I think that the modern notion(s) of infinity would at the very least make the medievals less quick to take certain things as obviously absurd, like that point about the impossibility of doubling infinity: if this is impossible, then it is not obviously so, at least.
In reply to Infinities by Peter Adamson
Yes, I guess the medievals…
Yes, I guess the medievals didn’t have the opportunity to check in to Hilbert’s hotel.
Add new comment
Blog Archive
- April 2021 (4)
- March 2021 (4)
- February 2021 (1)
- January 2021 (2)
- December 2020 (3)
- November 2020 (3)
- October 2020 (4)
- September 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (4)
- June 2020 (2)
- May 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (4)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (5)
- November 2019 (2)
- October 2019 (4)
- September 2019 (3)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (2)
- June 2019 (2)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (3)
- March 2019 (2)
- February 2019 (4)
- January 2019 (2)
- December 2018 (5)
- November 2018 (1)
- October 2018 (3)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (8)
- July 2018 (4)
- June 2018 (2)
- May 2018 (3)
- April 2018 (5)
- March 2018 (3)
Different sized infinities
At around 1:24:40-55, you mentioned how that in an eternal universe juiper would have revolved around the earth an infinite amount of times, and that would mean the moon would have as well x 30, which would be absurd since that would mean that one infinity is bigger than another, with Robinson making a joke that they haven't read Cantor. Multiplying any positive number by infinity would actually just be infinity, not a bigger one. This wouldn't actually be related to Cantor.
Aside from clearing that up, this makes me wonder about two questions. 1. How would this mathematical fact effect their reasoning? Would it just simply solve the absurdity objection? 2. Cantor discovering that there are different sized infinities makes me wonder (if at all) how it would effect typical philosophical arguments and theories about infinity in classical/medieval philosophy in general? Or would we just avoid the issue by saying mathematical infinity is different than philosophical infinity?