INFINITE (Lat. in/if/This, boundless, from in-, not + finifits, bounded. fin ire, to bound, from finis, bound, from find ere, to cleave; con nected with Skt. bhid, to split, Cloth. beitan, IYHG. bizzon, brisseu, AS. bitun, Eng. bite). In philosophy, a term used in various senses, while at the same time there has been touch dis mission as to the reality of any object denoted by the term. The extended objects of our ordi nary perception do not occupy all the span of our field of vision. They have outlines which mark off their area from eircumjacent space. And SD with temporal magnitudes. Objects last for a longer or shorter period, before which they were not experienced and after which they are no longer experienecd. Their duration is finite, because set ells by ihnits—i., by their initial and final moments. Intensive magnitudes also are conceived by analoy as finite. Thus f hear a sound which is followed by a louder one. In this ease the less is not marked otr from the greater by limits. It is not a part of the greater. al though it may be that the space traversed by the vibrations of the air which cause the softer sound is part of the space traversed by the vibrations which cause the louder sound. Whatever may be the reason that makes its use in the ease of these so-called intensive magnitudes the same terminology greater and less). there is no doubt that we do so speak of a 'finite' intensity xviwnever we comely/. of a grea vr intensity as pr.ssible, although here the less is not included in the greater, and therefore it is not marked off or limited within the compass of the greater. It is important to keep this distinction in mind, for corresponding to this distinction we have two senses at least of the word 'finite.' and of course as many possible senses of the word Infinite.' (I) The infinite is that which is not an extended or enduring part of some larger ex tension or duration. Nov, if this be the mean ing of infinite. we may say there are possible two kinds of infinites—(al those which. though spatial or temporal. are not parts of larger spa
tial and temporal wholes. and (I)) those which are not spatial or temporal at all. 'The only pos. sible candidates for inclusion under (a) are mliuite .pare,' and 'infinite time.' and 'infinite number.' Under (b) would fall all intensive qualities. For instance, the loudness of any auditory sensation would be infinite in this sense, although the duration of the sensation and the distance at which the sound is heard are both finite.
(2) The infinite is that which, having in tensity, exceeds in intensity everything else. Au infinite sound ,4•11.e would be a S1111111111 which had a loudness surpassing that of all other actual or possible sounds. Infinite heat would he a heat-temperature sensation surpassing in inten sity all other actual or possible sensations of like sort; and so with the affections and the emotions. Now, with given conditions—i.e. a certain sentient and affective organism in a given state—there is sonic thing that corresponds to this definition. A sound of a certain definite degree of loudness is the loudest. sound a par ticular sentient being can bear. A greater wave length of air could not be heard. But no one seems disposed to call such a sound one of in finite loudness. Again. we can 'bear' pain up to a certain point, differing in different indi viduals. Beyond that point we become insensible.
(3) Still another sense of the infinite is the unconditioned. Everything that appears in experience is conditioned: it is what it is be cause other things are what they are; but in contrast to these conditioned realities smite phi losophers of almost all ages have lielieved in a reality lying behind experience and having a sclf-subsistent character not defined by any quali ties that appear in experience. Herbert Spencer's (q.v.) unknowable is an infinite of this char a•ter. Such an infinite is sometimes called an abstract infinite—abstract because without any definite positive quality, and because considered to have its essential being in separation from the concrete world we know.