Infinity, Causation, and Paradox ISBN: 9780198810339 Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited Subjects: Philosophy Metaphysics/ Epistemology Philosophy of Science;
Infinity is paradoxical in many ways. Alexander R. Pruss examines a seemingly large family of paradoxes in Infinity, Causation and Paradox. Some involve deterministic supertasks, others consider infinite lotteries or center on paradoxical results in decision theory. Pruss quickly surmises that all of these paradoxes have a common structure - it is impossible to have a single output that casually depends on infinitely many things - and can be resolved byembracing causal finitism. This solution, explored engagingly and at length, raises questions in the philosophy of physics about whether time and space are continuous or discrete, and leads to a cosmologicaldiscussion of the first cause that is reminiscent of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. These interdisciplinary considerations are important reading for scholars, academics and students in philosophy interested in how infinity and its philosophical paradoxes overlap with physics, religion, and mathematics.
Alexander R. Pruss is Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. His books include The Principle of Sufficient Reason (Cambridge, 2006), Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum, 2011), One Body (Notre Dame, 2012), and Necessary Existence (with Joshua Rasmussen; Oxford, 2018). He has PhDs in mathematics (British Columbia) and philosophy (Pittsburgh), and his current research focuses on metaphysics, philosophy of religion,formal epistemology and philosophy of mathematics.
