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Atthepresentmomenttheflyingarrowisnotin
motion.Itrestsintheairandcoversnodistance;
thisissoineveryothermoment.Buttimeconsists
ofmoments,hencethearrowcannotadvanceinthe
airbutmustbeatrest.
ZenoofElea1
ChapterI
TheflyingarrowAristotle’sviewofthe
aporiaofZenoItsinfluenceontheevolution
ofgeometryandonthescienceofmotion
Democritus’sversionofthisaporiaOn
mathematicalatomism
Spaceisinfinitelydivisible.Wecannotescapefromthisview.
Buttherecomesanafterthought.Wearefollowingatrainofthought,but
doesitnotleadtowhereitgetscompletelyconfused?Thatiswhythefirst
philosopherswhoencounteredtheideaofinfinitedivisibilitybuiltdefinite
barriersaroundit.
Acceptanceofthenotionofinfinitedivisibilitydoesnotimplyitsrealiz-
ability.Infinitedivisibilityisjustaspossibility.Eachpointcanbeapointof
divisionofastraightline.Butwewardoffthethoughtthatastraightlinecould
betotallydividedandsplitintopoints.Thiswouldleadtotheconclusionthat
pointsarethebuildingmaterialoutofwhichitwouldbepossibletoconstruct
astraightline.
Wecanseeastraightlinecomposedofsegments,howeversmall.Butwe
cannotimageitsbeingcomposedofpoints.
Arealizedsubdivisionofastraightlineintopointsleadstodifficultiesof
understandingmotion.
Whenmoving,wepassthepointsofastraightline,butifweareatany
oneofthemwedonotmove,becauseapointhasnolength.Similarly,theidea
thattimeiscomposedofmomentsleadstodifficulties.Whenmoving,weare
atrestateverymoment,becauseamomenthasnoduration.
ThisiswhatZenoofEleapointedoutinhismosttroublesomeaporia:the
aporiaoftheflyingarrow.
1WładysławTatarkiewicz,Historiafilozofii.Warszawa1978,p.37.TranslatedbyAbe
Shenitzer.
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