William Lane Craig Tristram Shandy Paradox I just finished this philsophy article, which follows after the one below. As in Bertrand Russell was the first to use the Tristram Shandy example so ready it first gives a person a good idea of the history, but it is Craig that truly made it paradoxical by placing it in the past to show an infinite past is impossible.

William Lane Craig sets out to demonstrate that the principle of correspondence and an actual infinity only work in the mathematical realm. According to Craig it is when the principle of correspondence is applied to an actual infinite in reality that various absurdities arise. An actual infinite is a complete infinite series opposed to the potential infinite which only increases indefinitely remaining at any time a finite collection. His motivation is to demonstrate that an actual infinity cannot exist in the physical world as opposed to the mathematical realm, and therefore when we envision an actual infinity in the world and apply the principle of correspondence the results are paradoxical.