„Wahrhafte Unendlichkeit“ der Raumzeit: Hegelsche Logik und moderne Kosmologie
Thomas Kelkel
Hegel-Studien Band 57 (2024)

Abstract: This paper argues that Kant’s dilemma in the antinomy of pure reason (especially the “first conflict”) is an expression of a deficient conception of infinity as principled incompleteness that is still pervasive today. Such incompleteness is properly conceived only as a rule/dynamic, not as an attribute assignable to objects. For Kant, the antinomy arises from the apparent impossibility of conceiving both unboundedness and completeness/closedness in conjunction. This contradiction is also inherent in the ordinary understanding of infinity, which Hegel calls the merely “bad infinite”. The paper shows that Hegel’s concept of “true infinity” mediates between unboundedness and closedness and thus provides a way out of the dilemma by transforming the cyclical repetition into a closed circle. The paper further argues that this Hegelian figure of thought may also provide a solution to fundamental problems of epistemology and cosmology, and shows that the current state of natural scientific research already enables us to conceive a “true infinity” of space-time.

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