| Subject: Tristram Shot Down |
Author:
Damoclese
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Date Posted: 03/ 4/04 11:13am
I suspected all this Tristram baloney had been traversed before. Turns out it has.
I'm gonna quote two relevant passages:
"Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) suspects that the Tristram Shandy paradox can be solved. For Russell, it is the individual who possesses an infinite number of days. Of course mortal individuals possess merely a finite number of days. According to Russell, this is the key in solving the apparent problem."
So, Russell solved this paradox by making Shandy Immortal. That's weird.
"Theist William Lane Craig. Craig, in response to Smith, asserts that both Russell and Smith have missed the real issue involved in the paradox. Craig responds to Russell that the problem with this argument seems to be that while an infinite number of years is a necessary condition of recording an infinite number of days at the rate of one day per year, it is not a sufficient condition. What is also needed is that the days and years be arranged in a certain way such that every day is succeeded by a year in which to record it. But then it will be seen that Tristram Shandy's task is inherently paradoxical; the absurdity lies not in the infinity of the past but in the task itself.(7)
Craig continues and claims that instead of Shandy writing forever and catching up on history, he would eventually be infinitely far behind.(8) Craig further points out that the picture Russell paints entails a beginningless task. That is, if one were to ask "Where in the temporal series of events are the days recorded by Tristram Shandy at any given point?"(9) then, according to Craig, one could only answer that the days are infinitely distant from the present. It appears that for every day Shandy is writing, there is an infinite distance from that day to the last recorded day."
For once, I agree with the theist, and not Russell, which is a double irony.
Here's the link for anyone interested further:
Tristram Stomped into the ground
Wade is apparently espousing Russell's view, who was an adamant atheist. I think this just goes to show that Wade is willing to adopt anyone's argument who happens (however tangentially) to support the idea that God exists. (In this case, the argument lends itself to God's existance because the past couldn't have always existed and therefore must have been created, and we all know who Wade thinks created the universe)
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