Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The thought experiment concerns a lamp that is toggled on and off with increasing frequency. Thomson's lamp is a philosophical puzzle based on infinites. It was devised in 1954 by British philosopher James F. Thomson, who used it to analyze the possibility of a supertask, which is the completion of an infinite number of tasks.
In philosophy, a supertask is a countably infinite sequence of operations that occur sequentially within a finite interval of time. [1] Supertasks are called hypertasks when the number of operations becomes uncountably infinite .
Thomson's conditions for the experiment are insufficiently complete, since only instants of time before t≡1 are considered. Benacerraf's essay led to a renewed interest in infinity-related problems, set theory and the foundation of supertask theory.
A graph that shows the number of balls in and out of the vase for the first ten iterations of the problem. The Ross–Littlewood paradox (also known as the balls and vase problem or the ping pong ball problem) is a hypothetical problem in abstract mathematics and logic designed to illustrate the paradoxical, or at least non-intuitive, nature of infinity.
The philosophy of science includes the question: What criteria are satisfied by a 'good' theory. This question has a long history, and many scientists, as well as philosophers, have considered it. The objective is to be able to choose one theory as preferable to another without introducing cognitive bias. [4]
In certain cases, a scientific theory or scientific law that fails to fit all data can still be useful (due to its simplicity) as an approximation under specific conditions. An example is Newton's laws of motion, which are a highly accurate approximation to special relativity at velocities that are small relative to the speed of light. [6] [7] [8]
Original file (1,275 × 1,650 pixels, file size: 173 KB, MIME type: application/pdf, 2 pages) This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons . Information from its description page there is shown below.
Philosophy portal; This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. . If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikiped