1. Horror of the Infinite

09/19/16 • 13 min

Adrian Moore starts his journey through philosophical thought on infinity over the last two and a half thousand years.

For starters, he finds out why the idea made the Greeks so uncomfortable and introduces us to some of the first great thinkers on infinity.

We meet Pythagoras and his followers who divided the world into two fundamental cosmic principles. On one side was everything they thought of as limited or finite, and therefore good, and on the other everything they considered unlimited or infinite, and therefore bad.

The Pythagoreans thought they could explain the world around them in terms of the numbers - 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. - which we use to count finite collections of things, and they were utterly dismayed when they discovered that not every calculation produced the neat answer they expected. According to legend, one of their number was shipwrecked at sea for revealing this discovery to their enemies!

And we meet Zeno of Elea who, after wrestling with the notion of infinity, came to the conclusion that movement itself was impossible.

Producer: Philippa Goodrich

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2016.

Adrian Moore starts his journey through philosophical thought on infinity over the last two and a half thousand years.

For starters, he finds out why the idea made the Greeks so uncomfortable and introduces us to some of the first great thinkers on infinity.

And we meet Zeno of Elea who, after wrestling with the notion of infinity, came to the conclusion that movement itself was impossible.

Producer: Philippa Goodrich

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2016.

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2. Aristotle’s Rapprochement

Adrian Moore continues his journey through philosophical thought on infinity over the last two and a half thousand years.

He introduces us to the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who attempted a reconciliation between the idea of things going on for ever and ever and the Greeks’ abhorrence of the very notion.

We hear how he came up with the idea of two different types of infinite - the potential and the actual - and how it was the potential infinite that he presented as the acceptable face of infinity.

With the help of Ursula Coope, Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Oxford University, Adrian explains the idea of infinite divisibility and re-visits the paradoxes of Zeno which suggest that motion isn’t possible.

He carries out his own experiment to see whether using Aristotle’s theory of the infinite he can disprove Zeno’s conclusions and actually get himself home.

And he reveals how Aristotle’s theory of the infinite held sway for thousands of years, despite the challenges to it.

Producer: Philippa Goodrich

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2016.