Zeno of Elea Flashcards
Zeno of Elea is known exclusively for what?
For propounding a number of ingenious paradoxes, the most famous of these purport to show that motion is impossible by bringing to light apparent or latent contradictions in ordinary assumptions regarding to its occurrence
Zeno argued against what common assumption?
He argued against the common assumption that there are many things by showing in various ways how it, too, leads to contradiction
What is Zeno’s Original theory?
It is typically said that he aimed to defend the paradoxical monism of his Eleatic mentor, Parmenides, but the Platonic evidence on which this view has resided ultimately fails to support it
What is Zeno’s contemporary theory?
Zeno’s arguments tend to problematize the the application of quantitative conceptions to the physical bodies and to spatial expanses as ordinarily conceived, his paradoxes may have originated in reflection upon Pythagorean efforts to apply mathematical notions to the natural world.
What is The Antinomy if the Limit and the Unlimited?
If there are many things, it is necessary that they be just so many as they are and neither greater than themselves nor fewer. But if they are just as many as they are, they will be limited. If there are many things, the things that are are unlimited; for there are always others between these entities, and again others between those.
What is Zeno’s Paradox of Motion?
The Stadium (or the Dichotomy)- this is the argument about the impossibility of motion because what moves must reach the half-way point earlier than the end. It is not possible to transverse or make contact with unlimited things individually in a limited time.
What was Zeno’s Paradox of Motion- Achilles and the tortoise?
If a tortoise starts ahead of Achilles in a race, the tortoise will never be taken over by Achilles. Because during the time it takes Achilles to reach the point from which the tortoise started, the tortoise will have progressed some distance beyond that point.
What was Zeno’s Paradox of Motion- The Arrow?
If everything always is resting whenever it is against what is equal and what moves is always in the now, then the moving arrow is motionless.
Did Zeno’s arguments quickly achieve a remarkable level of notoriety?
Yes, they had an immediate impact on Greek physical theory.
Zeno’s principle that spatially extended entity must be limitlessly divisible would profoundly impact the development of the subtle and powerful physical theories of which philosophers?
Anaxagoras, who accepts the principle and the early atomists, Leucippus and Democritus, who reject it.
Zeno’s arguments forced Greek natural philosophers to develop properly what?
physical theories of composition as opposed to the essentially chemical theories of earlier thinkers such as Empedocles.
