Infinity

One of the exotic features of modern Mathematics is Infinity--it is a specific Cardinal Number, with its own unique symbol ('8' rotated 90 degrees), it refers to specific quantities, e. g. how many odd Integers there are, and it has operational uses in both pure Mathematics and e. g. in Physics, in the construction 'approaches Infinity'. As such, Infinity proves its usefulness. However, many Mathematicians, including some Philosophers, go further, and accord Ontological significance to Infinity, as if it were the gateway to some supernatural realm that is located at the top of a stairway or a ladder, thereby losing sight of the fact that e. g. 'approaches Infinity' really means 'keeps becoming larger'. But Ontological Infinity is an entrance only to absurdity. For example, if Infinity is an actual Cardinal Number, which one is it? Any Number System already guarantees a name and symbol for every Number that might arise, so at what juncture does the Number Infinity emerge? Or, as is plainer in terms of Ordinal Numbers, when does counting arrive at the Infinitieth item, e. g. when will McDonald's sell its Infinitieth hamburger? The fundamental problem, glossed over even by some who are otherwise meticulous about deriving linguistic terms from concrete experience, is, of course, that 'Infinity' is nothing but a reification of the attribute 'infinite'. Now, there seems to be no debating that the Number series is intrinsically Infinite, in which case it achieves 'Infinity' at every point of the series, not at some distant moment. Hence, the positing of a specific Number Infinity in that series, in fact, finitizes the series. Such finitizing of the infinite is an expression of a chronic Metaphysical prejudice, namely, the priority of Unity and its cognates, over Multiplicity and its cognates, a prejudice from which even Logical Atomism does not detach itself. One of the purposes of Formaterialism is to codify the irreducibility of Diversification to Homogenization, and, so, it rejects the Ontologization of Infinity.