Christianity and the scientific and philosophical concepts of infinity

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleХристианство и научно–философские концепции бесконечности
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Saprykin, Dmitry
5. lemma category Mathematics - History and philosophy of science
6. Publication date 2009
7. lemma work Katasonov, Vladimir [Author]. Christianity and the scientific and philosophical concepts of infinity.
8. lemma manifestations Христианство. Культура. Наука. : Christianity. Culture. Science.
9. Keywords infinity - Cantor, George
10. Citations
    1. http://katasonov-vn.narod.ru/statji/razdel2/2-9_v.n.katasonov_khristianstvo_i_nauchno-filosofs.htm
11. Lemma body

    1. This article is an attempt to comprehend upon the concept of actual infinity in the history of science and philosophy in comparison with the classical dichotomy of Christian theology: the apophatic and cataphatic ways of knowing God.

       According to the author, the historically traditional, "conservative" approach to infinity, rooted back in Greek antiquity, is "apophatic". Refusing to consider the actual infinity and recognizing only the potential infinity, the researcher somehow remains "on this side" from the infinity considering it only from the point of view of the finite. Speculative constructions with actually infinite are already "cataphatic": the researcher pretends to know the infinite in itself. The whole difficulty is, Katasonov emphasizes, that infinity, indeed, is "given" to us in a sense.

       Following Cantor, the author claims that if we recognize the potential infinity, then we must recognize the actual. Actual infinity is like a "container" in which a series of potential infinity unfolds and this container must already be actual data. We "see" this container as if by means of "side vision"; more precisely, we can not "see" this container as a separate "object", because we ourselves are its part; the line between the subject and the object is here removed.

       According to Katasonov, in our perception of the actual infinity from “the other side” of the subject-object boundary, again there is a certain parallel with the apophatics of the Christian experience, in which the intercession from one face to the God’s Face is also "inconsistent and inseparable." Although, of course, there is a significant difference: the experience of the so-called "mathematical apophatics" is characteristically impersonal.

       The author emphasizes that positive attempts to comprehend infinity began in the European thought precisely with the affirmation of Christianity. Four centuries of persistent efforts to comprehend the infinite did not bring us much new knowledge, as the author believes. Infinity and today remains for us a deep secret, as incomprehensible as freedom, personality, God. These attempts, however, made it possible to "clear the ground", to better realize what we really know, what we just think, and what we just really want.