Infinitely possible to philosophise

Back in 2005 I wrote a blog post about my desire to become a philosopher. It's here if you'd like to read it.

I mention that because it's relevant to my thoughts today. Insofar as anything is relevant when my thoughts are concerned.

In the car the other day I was listening to a radio programme about philosophy, in particular philosophers' attitude to the infinite. Just how does one become a philosopher and get paid for it? (That's the important bit at the end.)

I could - and indeed do - come up with wonderful ideas but nobody pays me for them. I'm sure I could be just as obtuse as any professional philosopher. (But I would have to be called something else as each time I go to type philosopher I have to stop and think about what comes after the s.)

But back to the radio programme. Somebody said that infinity is just an invention, which of course is complete nonsense. (See what a great thinker I would be! Especially as thinking is the best way to sit on the toilet - see post from a few days ago.)

More serious people took it um ... more seriously. Descartes said something good but his argument seemed flawed to me. From what I can remember he said the only way his mind was capable of conceiving of something infinite and omnipotent etc - he was talking about God at this point - was if something outside himself had put the idea in his head and thus God must exist because he could imagine him.

I might have got that a bit wrong but his views did cause the British Empiricists to disagree. They said we should do without the concept of the infinite because we were incapable of thinking about it or experiencing it. 

Then we had Kant. He believed that space and time were infinite but also in some sense finite. I can't remember exactly what else the programme said about him but I do remember thinking it made a lot of sense.

And this you see is my problem and why I always dreaded having to do jury service: I am easily swayed and would inevitably vote in favour of whoever spoke last.

But just to prove how very good a phil thinker I would be here is an extract of a post from 2006.

It began in work when an argument with my computer over the presence or otherwise of a line led me to question the very idea of existence. It seems greater minds than mine have spent hours - nay years - pondering this topic and it suddenly occurs to me, 'If I pinch myself do I not yelp?' Thus proving beyond doubt my existence. So maybe they are not greater minds than mine. Maybe they just need to stick pins in themselves.  
Or maybe I'm missing the point.