Zeno's Paradoxes
To defend his teacher's claim that all is one and unchanging, Zeno spun arguments that motion is impossible — Achilles can never overtake a tortoise with a head start, and a flying arrow, at every instant, stands perfectly still.
Zeno's Paradoxes are a set of arguments by Zeno of Elea (c. 490–430 BCE), crafted to defend his teacher Parmenides' doctrine that reality is a single, motionless One. By showing that motion and plurality lead to absurd contradictions — Achilles never catching the tortoise, the arrow at rest at every instant, the impossibility of completing infinitely many steps — Zeno argued that the changing, multiple world of the senses must be an illusion. Aristotle preserved and rebutted the paradoxes, and they remained a goad to thinking about infinity, continuity, and limits, finding a mathematical resolution only with the modern calculus of infinite series.
How it traveled
- De Xenophane, de Zenone, de GorgiaChalcis · -322explains
- PhysicaChalcis · -322explains
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
Key passages(20)
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Zeno of Elea: Fragments & Testimonia · Zeno of Elea
In Aristotelis Physica Paraphrasis · Themistius
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
De Xenophane, de Zenone, de Gorgia · Pseudo-Aristotle
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
De Xenophane, de Zenone, de Gorgia · Pseudo-Aristotle
De Xenophane, de Zenone, de Gorgia · Pseudo-Aristotle
De lineis insecabilibus · Pseudo-Aristotle
In Aristotelis Physicorum Libros Commentaria · John Philoponus