finitism
/ˈfaɪnaɪˌtɪzəm/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An extreme form of constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from natural numbers in a finite number of steps.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "As a result, some logical principles no longer apply, including Aristotle’s theorem of the excluded middle, according to which a mathematical statement is always either true or false. In finitism, a statement can be indeterminate at a certain point in time if the value of a number has not yet been determined. For example, with statements that revolve around numbers such as 0.999..., if you carry out the full period and consider an infinite number of 9’s, the answer becomes 1. But if there is no infinity, this statement is simply wrong."