Category: Zeno of Elea
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The Lethal Chamber of the Soul
I float the suggestion that the problem of the external world was originally ontological, not epistemological. The material world is the great lethal chamber of the soul. Only spiritual heroes can arouse themselves sufficiently to escape from its stupefying effect upon consciousness. (Paul Brunton) The Brunton quotation is distinctly Emersonian, as witness: The influence of…
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Zeno and Retortion
Retortion is the philosophical procedure whereby one seeks to establish a thesis by uncovering a performative inconsistency in anyone who attempts to deny it. If, for example, I were to assert that there are no assertions, the very act of making this assertion would show it to be false: the performance of assertion is 'inconsistent'…
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Does Zeno Affirm What He Denies?
Andrew Ushenko in a Mind article from 1946, "Zeno's Paradoxes," distinguishes five putative ways of refuting Zeno's paradoxes: logical, mathematical, mathematico-physical, physical, and philosophical. Ushenko points out that two logical refutations fail. This post examines one of them. This is of particular interest since a reader floated a similar suggestion. Ushenko states the objection and then…
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Zeno’s Regressive Dichotomy and the ‘Calculus Solution’
The Regressive Dichotomy is one of Zeno's paradoxes of motion. How can I get from point A, where I am, to point B, where I want to be? It seems I can't get started. A_______1/8_______1/4_______________1/2_________________________________ B To get from A to B, I must go halfway. But to travel halfway, I must first traverse half…