Infinity, infinite processes and limit concepts: recovering a neglected background of social and critical theory

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Date
2017-08-29
Authors
Strydom, Piet
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SAGE Publications
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Abstract
This article seeks to recover a neglected chapter in the historical and theoretical background of social theory in general and critical theory in particular with a view to refining the understanding of the presuppositions of a cognitively enhanced critical social science appropriate to our troubled times. For this purpose, it offers a brief reconstruction of the mathematical-philosophical tradition from ancient to modern times by extrapolating that part of it that is marked by the ideas of infinity, infinite processes and limit concepts. It gives suggestive indications not only of how these ideas relate to extant social-theoretical thought, but especially also of the two related cognitive directions – the weak-naturalistic and the socio-cultural – in which such thought is currently challenged to go.
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Critical theory , Culture , Immanuel Kant , Mathematics , Weak naturalism
Citation
Strydom, P. (2017) 'Infinity, infinite processes and limit concepts: recovering a neglected background of social and critical theory', Philosophy and Social Criticism, 43(8), pp. 793-811. doi:10.1177/0191453717692845
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© 2017, the Author. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.