VI—Paradoxes as Philosophical Method and Their Zenonian Origins

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 121 (2):153-181 (2021)
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Abstract

In this paper I show that one of the most fruitful ways of employing paradoxes has been as a philosophical method that forces us to reconsider basic assumptions. After a brief discussion of recent understandings of the notion of paradoxes, I show that Zeno of Elea was the inventor of paradoxes in this sense, against the background of Heraclitus’ and Parmenides’ way of argumentation: in contrast to Heraclitus, Zeno’s paradoxes do not ask us to embrace a paradoxical reality; and in contrast to Parmenides, Zeno shows common assumptions to be internally problematic, not just in light of Eleatic positions.

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Barbara Michaela Sattler
University of St. Andrews

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