Øystein vs Archimedes: A Note on Linnebo’s Infinite Balance

Erkenntnis 88 (4):1791-1796 (2023)
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Abstract

Using Riemann’s Rearrangement Theorem, Øystein Linnebo (2020) argues that, if it were possible to apply an infinite positive weight and an infinite negative weight to a working scale, the resulting net weight could end up being any real number, depending on the procedure by which these weights are applied. Appealing to the First Postulate of Archimedes’ treatise on balance, I argue instead that the scale would always read 0 kg. Along the way, we stop to consider an infinitely jittery flea, an infinitely protracted border conflict, and an infinitely electric glass rod.

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Daniel Hoek
Virginia Tech

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References found in this work

Tasks, super-tasks, and the modern eleatics.Paul Benacerraf - 1962 - Journal of Philosophy 59 (24):765-784.
Atomic metaphysics.Nick Huggett - 1999 - Journal of Philosophy 96 (1):5-24.
The Works of Archimedes.T. L. Heath - 1955 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 5 (20):355-356.
Atomic Metaphysics.Nick Huggett - 1999 - Journal of Philosophy 96 (1):5.
On some paradoxes of the infinite.Victor Allis & Teunis Koetsier - 1991 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 42 (2):187-194.

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