# Umberto Eco on Lists and Making Infinity Comprehensible

![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article3.5c705a01b476.png)

## Metadata
- Author: [[Maria Popova]]
- Full Title: Umberto Eco on Lists and Making Infinity Comprehensible
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/12/22/umberto-eco-on-lists/

## Highlights
- The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries.
    - Tags: [[infinity]]