Philosophical Works · Chapter
XXVI explained
Descartes advises against engaging in disputes about the infinite, arguing that finite beings cannot determine anything about it.
What happens
Descartes advises against engaging in disputes about the infinite, arguing that finite beings cannot determine anything about it. He proposes to treat things without discoverable limits as indefinite rather than infinite, such as the extension of the world, the divisibility of matter, and the number of stars, to avoid absurd questions.
Themes in this chapter
Reason and Method
Descartes outlines a methodological principle to avoid fruitless disputes about the infinite by treating certain phenomena as indefinite.
Characters to notice
- René Descartes
Author of the chapter, presenting his view on the infinite and the indefinite.
- God
Referenced as the creator who could create more stars than can be imagined.
Key passages
“We will thus never embarrass ourselves by disputes about the infinite, seeing it would be absurd for us who are finite to undertake to determine anything regarding it, and thus as it were to limit it by endeavouring to comprehend it.”
We will avoid getting tangled in arguments about the infinite, since it is foolish for finite beings to try to define or limit it by attempting to understand it.
Descartes argues that finite humans cannot grasp the infinite, so such debates are pointless.
“And, for our part, looking to all those things in which in certain senses, we discover no limits, we will not, therefore, affirm that they are infinite, but will regard them simply as indefinite.”
For our part, when we encounter things that seem to have no limits, we will not call them infinite but merely indefinite.
Descartes introduces a key distinction between the infinite (reserved for God) and the indefinite (applied to created things).