Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [infinity]

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Is it possible to flip a coin an infinite number of times and never land on tails?

If I would flip a coin an infinite number of times would it be possible to never land on tails? In other words if there's an infinite number of chances of something happening is it still possible for it not to happen?
sssssss
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What are the necessary conditions for something to be eternal?

What are the necessary logical conditions for something to be eternal (i.e. without beginning, always existing)?
user813801
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Stack vs. Queue Brainteaser

So I have a thought in my head I was wondering if anyone could offer wisdom on, and excuse me if this is a silly question or is not philosophical in nature. The question is basically this: Let's assume you have an infinite stream of data that you…
dbalagula23
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Finity to Infinity?

The list of all whole numbers is infinite. Can numbers start from something trivial such as 0, 1 and then reach infinity? As per my understanding, infinity is fully formed, perfectly symmetrical, which means to say that a part(small or big) of…
Iowa
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Is it Possible to have infinite finites

As far as I see, there are only three ways to have infinity apples in the present. they existed eternally they materialized at an infinite rate they were added one apple at a time every second from eternity (infinite time) However, when…
user813801
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One infinity greater than another infinity

Somebody told me this piece of logic: "If we consider in our thoughts something which is actually infinite, and we take a part from it, the remainder will undoubtedly be less than what it was before. And if the remainder is also infinite, then one…
user813801
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Is Pi in Pi? And is 1/3 in Pi? And other numbers?

Note: According to my high school math teacher, people have seriously gone insane because of musing over stuff to do with infinity, so unless you are fine with going insane, or are sure not to ponder too much, stop reading now :P Relatively basic…
foxite
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How does this theory about infinity compare with known results in "infinity theory"?

I had a conversation about infinity with my friend yesterday and what I left with was a theory about infinity. HERE goes. I believe that there are different quantities of infinity because if you have two ranges, 0–1 and 0–2. Let's set this up, if…
Xebiq
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Is infinity really infinite if we can encode it in a finite number of bits?

I'm asking this question because in some programming languages there is an object defining "infinity", which behaves as the mathematical infinity (e.g. it is indefinite if you multiply it by 0, dividing by it a finite number yields 0), and of course…
boringbeing
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Can there be a "center" of something infinite?

Imagine a plane that's infinitely large. Would there still be a center of it? I feel like there couldn't be one... But something tells me there should be in some way!
PaddiM8
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Isn’t the impossibility of an actual infinite in time almost by definition?

I have seen many philosophers argue that it is not contradictory to suppose that an actual infinite can exist. But infinite in the future or past means never ending. If it never ends, it never actually occurs. Thus, if there was an infinite past,…
user62907
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How should eternity affect the plausibility of an agent’s existence?

Suppose the concept of God wasn’t eternal. There was some mechanism, perhaps even simpler than God, that gave rise to His existence. Is this more or less plausible than Him eternally existing? What about God springing out of nothing? If God had a…
user62907
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Can an infinite process be discontinuous?

The question is probably very, very easily answered with basic mathematical facts about infinity. Does it have any bearing on philosophy, what the answer is?
user62090
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Can two things or x number of things that are not infinite create infinity?

Can two things or x number of things that are not infinite create infinity? Let's assume that x is not infinity. I am thinking that it's not the case, and there's no paradox here, but I just want to make sure. But I am pretty sure you can prove…
Sayaman
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Could it be possible to refute Cantor's findings about multiple infinities on the basis of a radical new concept, that decimals are not numbers?

[Edit 08 March 2016: Some of my views have changed or evolved since I posted this thread and responded to the posters in it. These have been added to the essay in a new section.] This is a re-post from the mathematics section, where the question…
TW294287
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