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Zeno’s paradox

שו”תCategory: philosophyZeno’s paradox
asked 7 months ago

Greetings, I just listened to the Rabbi’s lesson 7 in ‘Conceptual Analysis’, and there the Rabbi brought up Zeno’s paradox. From what I understood, the Rabbi’s answer to the paradox was that the concept of velocity should be redefined not according to its method of calculation (which then can indeed be spoken of only in terms of segments and not of points) but according to its essence (as a kind of acceleration/potential velocity – in force), and that a distinction should be made between ‘standing’ and ‘located’, and in any case, at each point the arrow is not standing but located. Here, I will summarize the things, as I understand them, briefly.
On Wikipedia, the paradox is presented as follows:
An arrow is shot at a target. At a certain moment in its flight, it is in a certain place, that is, it is at rest. This description is true for each moment of the arrow’s flight, and therefore the arrow is at rest throughout its flight, that is, there is no movement of the arrow at all .
I understand that what the Rabbi called ‘standing’ they (Wikipedia writers) called ‘at rest,’ but it seems from their words that his claim is not that there is no speed (or that our definition of it is incorrect because it creates a paradox) but that there is no motion. It is not critical to me what his real intention was, I just wanted to understand whether the Rabbi’s definition given in the above lesson also solves the problem of defining motion as above, which apparently does not, since even if we define speed as the potential ability to change place given the appropriate conditions (time, open space, etc.), it seems that motion cannot be defined in this way. I would appreciate the Rabbi’s response.
PS: As I understand it, the paradox as presented in Wikipedia is indeed very strange, for it can seemingly be said simply that the definition of motion is the transition from force to action of speed (according to the Rabbi’s definition), and for this to take place, a certain time is needed. In other words, the concept of motion is a body that implies the movement of a body from one point to another at a certain time, and therefore it is indeed not possible for a body to be in motion at a certain point in time.
 

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מיכי Staff answered 7 months ago

I don’t understand the question. Obviously there is motion. The whole problem is that there is no velocity at a point in time, and that’s what I answered.

הנ"ל replied 7 months ago

That is, what they wrote on Wikipedia as the conclusion of the paradox: "That is, the arrow's movement does not exist at all." Does this mean that it has no time bank speed?

מיכי Staff replied 7 months ago

He is not moving.

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