Zeno's Paradoxes

These essays lead the reader through the land of the wonderful shrinking genie to the warehouse where the “infinity machines” are kept. By careful examination of a lamp that is switched on and off infinitely many times, or the workings of a machine that prints out an infinite decimal expansion of pi, we begin to understand how it is possible for Achilles to overtake the tortoise. The concepts that form the basis of modern science—space, time, motion, change, infinity—are examined and explored in this edition. Includes an updated bibliography.

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25988g

Edited by Wesley C. Salmon

2001 - 320 pp.

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Cloth 978-0-87220-561-1
$45.00
Paper 978-0-87220-560-4
$17.00

A reprint of the Bobbs-Merrill edition of 1970.

These essays lead the reader through the land of the wonderful shrinking genie to the warehouse where the “infinity machines” are kept. By careful examination of a lamp that is switched on and off infinitely many times, or the workings of a machine that prints out an infinite decimal expansion of pi, we begin to understand how it is possible for Achilles to overtake the tortoise. The concepts that form the basis of modern science—space, time, motion, change, infinity—are examined and explored in this edition. Includes an updated bibliography.

 

Contents:

  • Resolution of the Paradox
  • Introduction
  • Bertrand Russell, “The Problem of Infinity Considered Historically”
  • Henri Bergson, “The Cinematographic View of Becoming”
  • Max Black, “Achilles and the Tortoise”
  • J. O. Wisdom, “Achilles on a Physical Racecourse”
  • James Thomson, “Tasks and Super-Tasks”
  • Paul Benacerraf, “Tasks, Super-Tasks, and the Modern Eleatics”
  • James Thomson, “Comments on Professor Benacerraf's Paper”
  • G. E. L. Owen, “Zeno and the Mathematicians”
  • Adolf Grunbaum, “Modern Science and Refutation of the Paradoxes of Zeno”
  • Adolf Grunbaum, “Zeno's Metrical Paradox of Extension”
  • Adolf Grunbaum, “Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion”
  • Appendix
  • Sets and Infinity
  • Bibliography
  • Index

 

About the Author:

Wesley C. Salmon is University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh.