Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Isagoge ('Introduction')', 'Essence and Modality' and 'Letter to Shumacher'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts

---

1 idea

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / d. Actual infinite

10855	Actual infinities are not allowed in mathematics - only limits which may increase without bound [Gauss]
	Full Idea: I protest against the use of an infinite quantity as an actual entity; this is never allowed in mathematics. The infinite is only a manner of speaking, in which one properly speaks of limits ...which are permitted to increase without bound.
	From: Carl Friedrich Gauss (Letter to Shumacher [1831]), quoted by Brian Clegg - Infinity: Quest to Think the Unthinkable Ch.7