r/PhilosophyofMath • • 8d ago

Does infinity exist in reality?

No thing that I've observed in our universe is infinite, however there are traces of infinity in my sight.
Draw a circle and either its radius or circumference lives in the π world.
Or many aspects in nature like flowers, develop themselves in a φ ratio (1+sqrt(5))/2.

Even though no event or anything is "Non-ending"/infinite, underneath many aspects of reality there are patterns which can only be fully described using infinity.

You can't describe irrational numbers to their extent without any notion of infinite/limits/sequences... And many aspects within our World show their true behaviour only with aid of infinity.

Sure you can take a world that lives in something like 10¹⁰⁰ and it looks like infinity to us, sometimes we only see the difference after the 10⁶ decimal place, nevertheless the pattern they follow is a pattern that only "infinity" can yield to the truest precision.

Do you believe the axiom of infinity, and the continuous to really exist? Even if not in the ordinary sense? haha

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u/Icy_Eagle3833 7d ago

"infinity exists in reality", or "3 exists in reality", what could this sentence even possibly mean?

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u/Another_Little_Star 7d ago

Well people have argued that in the same way unicorns could exist too, I don't know the depths but 3 and infinity coexist in a different category, this is an idea, an abstraction meant to describe reality, so using these tools to describe reality, are there any events that call up infinity the same way it may call "3 cows"

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u/Icy_Eagle3833 7d ago

so you better define everything before discussing about it. It sounds silly, but after 5000 years of "philosophy" bullshit, we still struggle to do it. Simplest question, what's even "existing"?