(February 11, 2018 at 5:01 pm)polymath257 Wrote:(February 10, 2018 at 10:43 pm)SteveII Wrote: This is getting tiring. Look back over your posts. I give reasons why an infinite series of past causes are logically impossible and all you keep coming back with is "no it's not". SHOW ME SOMETHING. A syllogism would be great. Post a link from a respected source if you can't articulate it. Until then, you are simply making assertions with no reasons to believe them. I want to see something that says there can be an actual infinite number of anything.
I gave the example of the negative integers to show how an infinite regress is *logically* possible. Did you not understand the example?
The distinction between potential and completed infinities is part of the philosophical problem: it is a false dichotomy. There is no logical problem with a completed infinity.
OK, so what does it mean to be 'part of the natural order of things'? How is that any different than simply existing? Anything causally connected to something natural is itself natural.
If I may play Devil's advocate, and because I'm curious about how Steve's overall argument about infinity can be effectively countered without assuming at least B-theory of time (if not eternalism).
Steve isn't necessarily arguing against the existence of an already completed infinity. At least not here (from what I've read). He's arguing against the impossibility of successively adding things (integer by integer) from negative infinity to any integer. Hence, the counting analogy.
