When1: -470
When2: -450
Who: Zeno of Elea
What: philosopher
Where: Elea, Italy
works\ Dialectics [-470 to -450]
Detail: He lived -495 to -435, associated with Parmenides, and founded Eleatic School. He invented the dialectic and invented paradoxes about infinite numbers of steps and changes. The paradoxes arise because they divide continuous motion into infinite steps, but the infinite is not real.
To go finite length, one must go through half, then half of that, and so on, through infinite number of steps or points {Dichotomy} {Racecourse}.
If tortoise has head start, Achilles arrives at tortoise starting point only after tortoise has left, so Achilles can never catch up to tortoise {Achilles and the Tortoise}.
Because no movement can happen through instant, at any instant, arrow is at fixed position, so arrow is at rest. At next instant, arrow is also at fixed position and at rest {The Arrow}.
Assume one row stands still, second row moves left in one instant, and third row moves right in the same instant. Second and third rows move one distance unit and are two units apart. The second and third rows were one unit apart at "half-instant". Because instant is the smallest time, no relative motion can really happen {Stadium} {Moving Rows} {Row of Solids}.
Metaphysics
Real motion does not exist. The sum of an infinite number of infinitely small quantities can equal either zero or infinity, and so both a finite and infinite number. Finite and infinite numbers are unlike each other, so such sums are both like and unlike, which should be impossible. Things can divide or bind infinitely, and so size can be both zero and infinite. Zero and infinite are unlike, so objects are both like and unlike themselves, which should be impossible. The paradoxes show motion is impossible. No motion can happen, because motion must pass through an infinite number of points to get from one point to another. At any instant, motion is infinitely small. If space and time are divisible, motion is impossible and cannot start.
Motion amount is relative, because measurement differs in different reference frames. Only one real thing exists.
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Date Modified: 2022.0224