"If we have only to classify a finite number of objects, it is easy to preserve these classifications without change. If the number of objects is indefinite, ...[i.e.,] if we are constantly liable to find new and unforeseen objects springing up, it may happen that the appearance of a new object will oblige us to modify the classification, and it is thus that we are exposed to antinomies. There is no actual infinity. The Cantorians forgot this, and so fell into contradiction. It is true that Cantorism has been useful, but that was when it was applied to a real problem, whose terms were clearly defined, and then it was possible to advance without danger. Like the Cantorians, the logicians have forgotten the fact, and they have met with the same difficulties. ...[B]elief in an actual infinity is essential in the Russellian logic, and this... distinguishes it from the Hilbertian logic. Hilbert takes the... view of extension... to avoid the Cantorian antimonies. Russell takes the... view of comprehension... to regard the infinite as actual. And we have not only infinite classes; when we pass from the genus to the species... the number of conditions is still infinite, for they generally express that the object... is in... relation with all the objects of an infinite class. But all this is ."
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Henri Poincaré, Science et Méthode (1908) Tr. Francis Maitland, Science and Method (1914) Ch. V. The Last Efforts of the Logicians, XI. Conclusions.
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Infinity
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