Heller M, Woodin W.H. (eds.) Infinity. New research frontiers (CUP, 2011)(ISBN 1107003873)(O)(327s)_MAml_

the metaphysical concept of the infinite 259is, if anything, even more intransigently, aboriginally Greek than that of the otherdeveloped schools; it might almost be described as a remarkably refined and embellished,but essentially pure, expression of a certain pre-Socratic vision of the whole.The “Stoic infinite” obeys the logic of totality rather than that of indeterminacy. Theentire cosmos, which is, viewed transcendentally, convertible with the divine mind, isan enclosed and finite order, spatially and temporally determined, endlessly recurrent,and yet invariable in its parts and processes. It is a perfect plenum, possessed of perfectorder, a “cosmopolis” in no respect deficient and in every respect admirable; it is atonce both the material plenitude and the harmonious city of cosmic order describedin the thought of Anaximander and Empedocles. As such, its “infinitude” is also itslimitation; as both an ideal order and the whole of all that is, it can contain its plenitudeonly in the form of a distribution of parts and succession of events. In this perfectlysealed order of arising and perishing, advancement and retreat, the whole must alwaysand again “make room” for what it contains. Death is necessary so that new beingscan arise within the divine plenitude; and, in its fullness, the whole of the spatial andtemporal order is destined for ecpyrosis, a return into the primordial fire of divine mind,only that it might arise once more and repeat the same circuit again and again, identicalin every detail, throughout eternity. No more astonishing, sublime, or terrible vision ofthe world as totality – and none more perfectly sealed within itself – can be found orimagined. However, in this system, the concept of the infinite in a truly transcendentmetaphysical sense – as that which is absolved of all finite determination while givingbeing to the finite – remains unthought.6. The first evidence of a purely “positive” metaphysical concept of the infinite inWestern thought might be found in Plotinus. At least, one should note his willingnessto speak of the One as infinite, or of Nous as infinite and the One as inexhaustible.According to W. Norris Clarke, at least, this is not mere apophasis: by “infinite” Plotinusmeans, inter alia, limitless plenitude as well as simplicity, absolute power as wellas absolute rest. Plotinus even asserts that love for the One must be infinite becauseits object is (Enneads VI.7.32). The infinity of Plotinus’s One, then, is no longer mereindeterminacy, as the infinite was for earlier Greek philosophy, but is rather the indeterminatebut positive wellspring of all of being’s virtues, possessing those virtues inan indefinite (and so limitless) condition of perfection and simplicity. Yet, even so, forPlotinus the infinity of the One is still in some sense only dialectically related to thetotality of finite beings; it is the metaphysical reverse of the realm of difference, itsabstract and formless “super-essence,” at once its opposite and its substance, the absolutedistinction and absolute unity of being and beings. The infinite, then, is the groundof the finite precisely in that it is “limited” by its incapacity for the finite; the One’svirtues are “positive” only insofar as they negate, and so uphold, the world. Thus,Plotinus’s thought comprises, if only implicitly, a kind of diremption and recuperation(to speak in Hegelian terms): the ambiguous drama of egressus and regressus, diastoleand systole, a fortunate fall followed by a desolate recovery. As the world’s dialecticalcounter, its “credit” or “treasury,” sustaining its totality, the One is of necessity theeternal oblivion of the here below; it is not mindful of us, and it shows itself to us onlyin the fragmentation of its light, shattered in the prism of Nous, dimly reflected byPsyche in the darkness of matter. Hence, the bounty of being is pervaded by a tragic