The Labours of Zeno – a Supertask indeed?
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23199085 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barbara M Sattler (0000-0003-0781-6320, University of St Andrews, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-17 |
| Publication date | 2019-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ancient Philosophy Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2516-1156 • E-ISSN: 2516-1164 |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/anph.2019.0002 |
| OpenAlex | W2934679276 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
It is usually supposed that, with his dichotomy paradox, Zeno gave birth to the modern so-called supertask debate – the debate of whether carrying out an infinite sequence of actions or operations in a finite interval of time is physically or even logically possible. I argue that in fact this is not a problem raised by Zeno's dichotomy paradox, and that an account of the dichotomy paradox as a supertask (often implicitly offered also by scholars of ancient philosophy) seriously misconstrues the problems Zeno raises therein. However, comparing Zeno's paradox with a paradigmatic supertask can nevertheless be instructive, since it forces us to make explicit the pre-conditions on which the supertask debate rests and to examine whether these conditions do indeed obtain in the case of a continuous run. I will suggest in the end that the requirements for supertasks and for continuous finite runs are genuinely different.
Epistemology · Mathematical economics · Physics · Quantum mechanics · Quantum Zeno effect · Sequence (biology) · Zeno's paradoxes · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Mathematics · Philosophy
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Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes
The Concept of Motion in Ancient Greek Thought
The presocratic philosophers a critical history with a selection of texts
Space, Time and Motion
Zeno of Elea. A Text, with Translation and Notes
Earman and Norton on Supertasks that Generate Indeterminism
On Some Paradoxes of the Infinite II
Classical Particle Dynamics, Indeterminism and a Supertask
On Some Paradoxes of the Infinite
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |