Mudabicara.com_ Paradox theory is a theory that describes something that has become destiny. But do you know who the originator of this paradox theory is?
Now! This time, Mudabicara.com wants to review the figure behind Zeno’s paradox theory. Check out our in-depth review of the following paradox theory:
Zeno Short Biography
Zeno was a Greek philosopher who came up with the paradox theory. He was born in 490 BC and very few writers have reviewed the life journey of the originator of this paradox theory.
A famous philosopher Plato describes Zeno as a person who has a tall body and fair skin. He was a philosopher who was close to Parmenides.
Zeno himself became famous for some of his writings. The paradoxical writing that was born from his hands made many people curious and confused even to this day.
Most of the information about Zeno’s life and ideas comes from the philosophers Plato or Aristotle. Plato considers Zeno only as a defender of Parmenides while Parmenides considers Zeno as the founder of dialectic in his work.
Zeno’s proposition is indeed a paradox with Greek thought and even contradicts the beliefs or opinions of many other philosophers. It challenges basic conceptions of plurality, space, and motion.
Zeno’s paradox was influenced by Pythagoras’ attempts to apply mathematical concepts to the natural world.
Thoughts that contain paradoxes may disappear, but some of Zeno’s paradoxes come from none other than great figures like Aristotle.
Zeno is an anti-logic character, it is evident from the paradoxes that confuse other thinkers. Here’s Zeno’s paradoxical thinking.
Zeno’s Paradox Theory
1. Tortoise and Achilles
Talking about Zeno’s Paradox is one of the most famous paradoxes throughout Greek history. As Achilles and the tortoise among the Greeks became Zeno’s very famous paradox.
The Achilles and the tortoise paradox was well known among the Greeks because many of them failed to explain this paradox.
Although today the paradox is considered not too difficult. But it will take thousands of years before mathematicians can explain the Achilles paradox and the tortoise-which in its description is more or less like the analogy below:
The fastest runner (A) will not be able to overtake the slower runner (B). This happens because A must be at the original point B, while B has left (in front of) that point.
Achilles Running
Zeno analogized this paradox by imagining the race of Achilles and the Tortoise. If they both ran at a constant speed and the tortoise would have been much slower.
For this reason, the tortoise is given the advantage of having an early start in front of Achilles, for example, let’s say the tortoise starts 100 meters first. When the race has started, Achilles will reach the 100 m point (the point where the tortoise started).
But this turtle must also have stepped forward, even though the turtle is much slower. let’s say he just walked 10 meters. Then Achilles is at the 110 m point, but the tortoise remains or has already stepped forward.
And so on, every time Achilles is at the point where the tortoise was, the tortoise has stepped forward. This means, Achilles, no matter how fast he runs he will not be able to overtake the tortoise even though his pace is very slow.
Zeno’s argument seems logically correct, but it doesn’t match reality. In the real world, Achilles of course won easily.
So, why does logic show that Achilles is unable to catch up with the tortoise? When people hear Zeno’s paradox regarding Achilles and the tortoise, then they will surely rise up against it.
The resistance consisted of two classes of people who were against Zeno. The first group says that Zeno’s paradox does not correspond to reality and is wrong.
The second group also states that Zeno’s paradox is false. But they are not satisfied with the simple answer of just judging wrong. It is this second group who for more than two thousand years have not been satisfied to formulate a solution for Zeno.
2. Arrow Movement
The second paradox is the parable of the movement of the arrow. In this context, Zeno in reading the movement of the arrow is by dividing time with the term “row of the present”.
Then when we let go of the arrow. At each “present-day” stone the arrow occupies a certain position in the air. Starting from that parable, Zeno considers the arrow to be at rest the entire time (when it is released).”
From Zeno’s paradoxical theory, he revealed that arrows are always at rest. There is only pseudo-motion which is a series of stops.
Zeno sees time as a continuous series of “presents”. Therefore a gliding arrow has a “present-day” version of its journey.
There is a “present” immediately after the bow is released, there is a “present” after a few seconds of the arc being in space, and so on. The problem is that in every “present” the arrow is in a fixed position. Just like if it happened in the video.
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The frame shows various conditions of arrows indicating a stationary position. However if the tape is played, it will give the recording a moving arrow.
So the paradox of this arrow gives an explanation of “motion” as well as “still”. In short, Zeno of this paradox shows the philosophical truth, that motion is pseudo.
3. The Dichotomous Argument
In Zeno’s view of the dichotomy. He said that actually the empty space that causes a certain distance, the distance is considered unlimited, because it can still be divided into other distances that are not limited in number.
If a motion is said to exist, then the perpetrator of the motion will travel a certain distance. First you have to cover half the distance from that distance so that you get to an infinity point.
People who move will not reach the finish line of the distance that will be covered. Likewise with the motion is impossible.
Zeno emphasized that the moving object must first move half the distance from the distance it will travel, only then the remaining distance.
If a dot moves from position 0 to position 1 on the number line, then its position reaches 1/2, next 3/4, next 7/8 and so on. In stage n, it will be in position 1 – 12n.
Thus, there are no n to 1 – 12n= 1. So, the point movement will never be at position 1. Thus, it cannot go through infinity to finite numbers.
In the context of the dichotomy, Zeno’s opinion for more than 20 centuries cannot be solved logically, and can only be solved after mathematicians have formulated a definition of the limit of an infinite count.
Philosophers and mathematicians have also debated the nature of the paradox, both from a metaphysical and mathematical point of view.
4. The Inconsistency of Zeno’s Paradox
Zeno argues that all his paradoxes aim to show the inconsistency of the common belief that there are several things.
Plato also claims that Zeno was simply imitating Parmenides of Elea. He only changed his form so as to trick people into saying something completely different from Parmenides.
He stated that while Parmenides of Elea claimed that all things were one, Zeno claimed that no multiple objects were essentially the same in nature.
Meanwhile, Aristotle stated that Zeno’s paradox was always referenced and rewritten by the people who edited his work so that it is difficult to say which is the original and which has been rewritten by other writers.
The paradox of motion, contained in Aristotle’s physical thought, has no direct connection with the thesis of many people. Almost all of Zeno’s work calls into question the general beliefs of Aristotle’s thought.
However, based on the paradoxical explanation by Aristotle, that if all of these were Zeno’s works, it would certainly question plurality and movement.
Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century philosopher, reviews Aristotle’s comments on Zeno’s paradox, arguing that time does not occur instantaneously.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell agrees with Zeno’s statement that for a duration that is not instantaneous, an object can only remain in space.
But he argues that what happens between the two momentums is based on the fact that objects floating in space are moving.
Thus, young friends, our review of the zeno’s paradox theory this time, may be useful for all of you.