Definition: Zeno of Elea (in southern Italy) is the Pre-Socratic philosopher known for his puzzles and paradoxes about motion and plurality in the days before the development of "logic".
"If things are a many, they must be just as many as they are, and neither more nor less. Now, if they are as many as they are, they will be finite in number."Although a so-called Pre-Socratic, Zeno, born c. 490 B.C., was an older contemporary of Socrates. The two met when Zeno accompanied his teacher Parmenides, another Pre-Socratic, to Athens. Zeno used an argument method known as indirect proof that led to reductio ad absurdum. Aristotle wrote that Zeno was the first to use dialectic.
Zeno was tortured to death (c. 435 B.C.) for taking part in a political conspiracy against the city's tyrant Nearchus.
Sources: Zeno of Elea College paper by Kristen Riley
[URL formerly at: www.utm.edu/research/iep/z/zenoelea.htm] IEP - Zeno of Elea
New Advent - Zeno of Elea
"The Purpose of Zeno's Arguments on Motion," by Florian Cajori. Isis, Vol. 3, No. 1. (Jan., 1920), pp. 7-20.
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The four arguments about motion in the paradoxes of Zeno are referred to as - Dichotomy
- Achilles
- Arrow and
- Stade.
