Past Time

The problematic character of infinite past time is revealed by a seemingly inescapable analytical contradiction in the very expression “infinite past time.”

If one splits the expression into its two component parts: (1) “past time” and (2) “infinite,” and attempts to find a common conceptual base which can apply to both terms (much like a lowest common denominator can apply to two different denominators in two fractions), one can immediately detect contradictory features. One such common conceptual base is the idea of “occurrence,” another, the idea of “achievement,” and still another, the idea of “actualizability.” Let us begin with the expression “past time.”

Past time can only be viewed as having occurred, or having been achieved, or having been actualized; otherwise, it would be analytically indistinguishable from present time and future time.