Achilles and the Tortoise
The fastest runner alive can never catch a tortoise with a head start. The argument is airtight. So where does it go wrong?
c. 450 BCE15 min read
Eleatic philosophy (Greek, southern Italy)
Zeno of Elea
490 BCE – 430 BCE
Pupil and associate of Parmenides in the Greek colony of Elea. He wrote a single book of arguments designed to show that the pluralist common-sense picture of the world is more absurd than his teacher's claim that reality is one and changeless. None of the book survives intact; the motion paradoxes are known only through Aristotle's paraphrases and later commentary.
2 entries
Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox
To cross a room you must first cross half of it, then half of what is left, and so on without end. So how does anyone move?
c. 450 BCE18 min read