1. Meaning and history of the concept. The word “infinite” appears for the first time as an attribute of formless “first matter”. Later it became one of the most pre-eminent attributes of God. Anaximander is the first to speak of the infinite (ἄπειρον), which he makes the inexhaustible ground of the becoming and passing away of things. According to the Pythagoreans and Plato, things are composed of one element which is indeterminate (άπειρον) and another which is a determination (πέρας, limitation). A…