Zeno of Elea :: essays research papers

Zeno of EleaZeno of Elea was born(p) in Elea, Italy, in 490 B.C. He died there in 430B.C., in an contract to oust the citys tyrant. He was a noned pupil ofParmenides, from whom he learn most of his doctrines and political ideas. Hebelieved that what exists is one, permanent, and unchanging. Zeno arguedagainst multiplicity and achievement. He did so by showing the contradictions thatresult from assuming that they were real. His argument against multiplicity verbalize that if the many another(prenominal) exists, it essential be both infinitely large and infinitelysmall, and it must be both limited and unlimited in number. His argumentagainst motion is characterized by two famous exemplars the flying arrow,and the runner in the race. It is the illustration with the runner that isassociated the first part of the assignment. In this illustration, Zeno arguedthat a runner disregard never reach the end of a race course. He stated that therunner first completes half(a) of the race course, and then half of the bedistance, and will continue to do so for infinity. In this way, the runner give the sacknever reach the end of the course, as it would be infinitely long, a good deal as thesemester would be infinitely long if we completed half, and then half theremainder, ad infinitum. This interval will shrink infinitely, but never soonerdisappear. This type of argument may be called the antinonomy of infinitedivisibilty, and was part of the dialectic which Zeno invented.These are only a small part of Zenos arguments, however. He is believedto commit devised at least forty arguments, eight of which pass on survived until thepresent. While these arguments seems simple, they have managed to raise anumber of profound philosophical and scientific questions more or less space, time, andinfinity, throughout history. These issues still interest philosophers andscientists today.The problem with both Zenos argument and yours is that uncomplete of you dealwith adding t he infinite. Your argument suggests that if one adds the infinite,the sum will be infinity, which is not the case.