Essays

What is the infinite? What does it mean to say that a given set is infinite? How are we to describe this sublime, elusive notion?

By Joel David Hamkins, O’Hara Professor of Logic, University of Notre Dame, USA

Infinitary mathematics offers alternative perspectives on the world. Reflecting on those perspectives helped to find some transcendence.

By Russell Marcus, Professor of Philosophy, Hamilton College, USA

Nature abounds with self-organization. In biology, function emerges from self-organization, and notions of infinity are deeply rooted therein.

By Vera Calenbuhr, Founder, Blue Marble Sustainability Research & Consulting, Switzerland

The concept of infinity has traditionally been associated with the divine. The divine in turn has typically been associated with transcendence.

By Rocco Gangle, Professor of Philosophy, Endicott College, USA

How is it possible that everything around us, especially dense, hard matter, is fundamentally “empty space”, and vice versa?

by Paolo Di Sia, Adjunct Professor, Universities of Padova and Verona, Italy

Vibrations have for much of human history been seen as the basis of the universe – a route to infinity. The drum resonates in the cosmos and all is retuned.

by June Boyce-Tillman, Professor Emerita, University of Winchester, United Kingdom

We all have a general idea of the infinite: something bigger than any specific thing. But if that is how we think of the infinite, we have a problem.

By Richard Baron, Independent Philosopher, United Kingdom

“How fast do you say you can run?”
“Ten cubits per second,” Achilles replied, doing fifty one-handed press-ups. “How far is a cubit?”

By Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom

Our universe is home to many strange and mysterious things and hidden in the darkness between the fiery stars is perhaps the strangest of them all.

By Geraint F. Lewis, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney, Australia

It is often said that death deprives life of meaning.  The sheer fact that my life will one day come to an end is reckoned to make it pointless. 

By Adrian Moore, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oxford, United Kingdom