infinitum successivum

Speranza

Before Gregor of Rimini lectured on the Sentences at Paris in 1344, the objections to the actual

infinite formulated by Fitzralph resulted in a rejection of both the potential and the actual

 

infinite.

 

In his argumentation, Fitzralphspeaks about the simultaneous infinite (simultanes infinitum).

In his discussion of the problem of infinity (during the 14th century) Henry of Harclay contemplated the difference between what he labeled the infinitum successivum and

infinitum simultaneum (cf. Maier, 1964:77-79).

 

These designations make and appeal to our

most basic intuitions of number (succession) and space (at once).

 

Therefore, it is

 

recommendable rather to distinguish between the successive infinite and the at once infinite

than between the potential infinite and the actual infinite.