Education Questions and Answers
What do you think of this sentence...?
Question:The begining of intelligence is to succeed to look more stupid than you are?
Do you know Zenon's paradox?
Answers:
Yes, it is Zeno's paradox.
Zeno's paradoxes are a set of problems devised by Zeno of Elea to support Parmenides' doctrine that "all is one" and that, contrary to the evidence of our senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion. It is usually assumed that Zeno took on the project of creating these paradoxes because other philosophers had created paradoxes against Parmenides' view. Thus Zeno can be interpreted as saying that to assume there is plurality is even more absurd than assuming there is only one. As such, if we are convinced by Zeno's paradoxes, we should take Parmenides' view more seriously.
Several of Zeno's eight surviving paradoxes (preserved in Aristotle's Physics and Simplicius's commentary thereon) are essentially equivalent to one another; and most of them were regarded, even in ancient times, as very easy to refute. Three of the strongest and most famous—that of Achilles and the tortoise, the dichotomy argument, and that of an arrow in flight—are given here.
Zeno's arguments are perhaps the first examples of a method of proof called reductio ad absurdum, also known as proof by contradiction. They are also credited as a source of the dialectic method used by Socrates.
According to some historians of philosophy, Zeno's paradoxes were a major problem for ancient and medieval philosophers.
In modern times, calculus has been widely accepted by mathematicians and engineers as at least a practical solution for calculating infinitesimal distances. Other proposed solutions to Zeno's paradoxes from past and present philosophers have included the denial that space and time are themselves infinitely divisible, and the denial that the terms space and time refer to any entity with any innate properties at all.
Many philosophers still hesitate to say that all paradoxes are completely solved. Some philosophers state that these paradoxes still have modern relevance: attempts to deal with the paradoxes have resulted in intellectual discoveries, and variations on the paradoxes (see Thomson's lamp) continue to produce at least temporary puzzlement in discovering what, if anything, is wrong with the argument.
The origins of the paradoxes are somewhat unclear. Diogenes Laertius says that Zeno's teacher, Parmenides, was "the first to use the argument known as 'Achilles and the Tortoise' ", and attributes this assertion to Favorinus. In a later statement, Laertius attributed the paradoxes to Zeno.
Achilles and the tortoise
"You can never catch up."
“ In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead ”
—Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b15
The dichotomy paradox
"You cannot even start."
“ That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal. ”
—Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b10
The arrow paradox
"You cannot even move."
“ If everything when it occupies an equal space is at rest, and if that which is in locomotion is always occupying such a space at any moment, the flying arrow is therefore motionless. ”
—Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b5
The quantum Zeno effect
In recent time, physicists studying quantum mechanics have noticed that the dynamical evolution (motion) of a quantum system can be hindered (or even inhibited) through observation of the system. This effect is usually called the quantum Zeno effect as it is strongly reminiscent of Zeno's arrow paradox.
Hope this helps.
An intelligent Statement!
We should disown or forget what we've learnt & look at the world & nature in a new light as if we were born anew. This child's spirit of wonder makes us see things deeper & in their true color.
Aristotle said , 'You can't miss the quirk of excenticity in every Genius'.
So to see things in all aspects, we should assume we don't know anythhing & start discovering from the beginning!
Right?
I know something of Zeno's or Zenon's Paradoxes which have set people thinking deep & discovering what's wrong with Zeno's line of argument & deduction.
This Zeno of Elea was a famous advocate of Parmenides' Doctrine, "all is one'. He concluded even 'Motion is an illusion'. But to disprove his paradoxes we've to go the whole nine yards & more!
His famous Surving Paradoxes are eight. The most famous are the following Three:
1. Achilles & the Tortoise ( running a race)
2. Dichotomy Argument
3. Arrow in Flight.
Besides these, I liked his argument on 'atom'.
For details here is an authentic site:
<http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:pkn...
More Related Questions & Answers...