History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HoP 008 - You Can't Get There From Here - Zeno And Melissus
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Nov 22, 2010 AI Snips
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Zeno's Tennis Court Paradox
- Zeno illustrated motion paradoxes by imagining walking across a tennis court with infinite halfway points to cross.
- This analogy shows how infinite tasks can seem to make motion impossible, provoking deep philosophical inquiry.
Zeno's Contradiction on Multiplicity
- Zeno aimed to show that belief in change and multiplicity leads to contradiction, not merely to spot errors.
- His paradoxes argue that if things are many, they must be both finite and infinite, which is impossible.
Resolving the Infinite Tasks Paradox
- Zeno's paradox of the dichotomy argues infinite subdivisions make motion impossible due to infinite tasks.
- Aristotle counters by dividing time similarly to distance, so infinite subdivisions don't require infinite time.