Re: Zeno Zeno Zeno


While we are on the subject of logical problems, paradoxes, etc., try
Russell's stuff, for example, 'Analysis of Mind' (not for a train
journey - except a bloody long one!), and if you like lots of endearing
humour served up with an element of showmanship, read Raymond Smullyan.

Victoria Catherine wrote:
Zeno of Elea, my newfound friend.

I love these:

The Dichotomy: It is impossible to move around a racetrack since we
must first go halfway, and before that go half of halfway, and before
that half of half of halfway, and . . . . If space is infinitely
divisible, we have infinitely many partial distances to cover, and
cannot get under way in any finite time.

Achilles and the Tortoise: Similarly, given a ten meter head-start, a
tortoise can never be overtaken by Achilles in a race, since Achilles
must catch up to where the tortoise began. But by then the tortoise has
moved ahead, and Achilles must catch up to that new point, and so on.
Again, the suppostition that things really move leads to an infinite
regress.

The Arrow: If, on the other hand, motion occurs in discrete intervals,
then at any given moment during its flight through the air, an arrow is
not moving. But since its entire flight comprises only such moments,
the arrow never moves.

The Stadium: Similarly, if three chariots of equal length, one
stationary and the others travelling in opposite directions, were to
pass by each other at the same time, then each of the supposedly moving
ones would take only half as long to pass the other as to pass the
third, making 1=2!

http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2b.htm#zeno

-Stacey
http://victoriacatherine.blogspot.com

.

Relevant Pages

  • Zeno Zeno Zeno
    ... must first go halfway, and before that go half of halfway, and before ... tortoise can never be overtaken by Achilles in a race, ... The Arrow: If, on the other hand, motion occurs in discrete intervals, ...
    (rec.org.mensa)
  • Re: Zeno Zeno Zeno
    ... tortoise can never be overtaken by Achilles in a race, ... The Arrow: If, on the other hand, motion occurs in discrete intervals, ... pass by each other at the same time, then each of the supposedly moving ...
    (rec.org.mensa)
  • Re: Snapes Vow (was: Half Blood Prince Major Letdown)
    ... Tortise Said to Achilles" by Lewis Carroll. ... Reprinted from Lewis Carroll, "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles," ... Readers of Euclid will grant, I suppose, that Z follows logically from ... "No doubt such a reader might exist. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: zenos paradox and the black hole
    ... Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. ... finite time, Achilles will have run 100 metres, ... that result in a black hole coming into being ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: zenos paradox and the black hole
    ... Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. ... finite time, Achilles will have run 100 metres, ... that result in a black hole coming into being ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)