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Zeno of Elea: His Worth in the Classroom

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Many important philosophers and people are frequently spoken of in various textbooks that are used throughout the world. Regardless of how much some of these people have influenced history, many of them are not taught in the schools of the world. One of these unknown people was a philosopher, the best of the Eleatic school in ancient Greece, named Zeno. His life influenced thinkers after him that have affected how the human race views the world.

At the start of and before Zeno's life, Greece was in a time of war against the Persian armies. King Darius I, the ruler of Persia at the time, was wanting to punish the Greek city of Athens at the time for supporting revolts by conquered greek cities in Asia-Minor. Zeno saw the world around him and came up with his own theories on how the world and its physical properties function. He was best known for his complicated and outlandish paradoxical theories. He came to the conclusion that change and motion are simply illusions. These paradoxes that Zeno came up with challenge the very idea of change; something that humans have come to know and accept for thousands of years. Whether these theories are true or false, they are still ideas that were developed from thinking critically about the universe and how the world works. Therefore, Zeno of Elea should be taught in schools around the world because of his thinking skills, and how these ideas influenced great and well-known philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Unfortunately, there are no known written records from Zeno himself. All that is known of Zeno came from writings of other people who had known him, some of these people are the Greek philosophers Parmenides and Aristotle. Parmenides was also a well known philosopher of his time and greatly influenced Zeno of Elea. According to the dialogue written by Plato titled Parmenides, Zeno was a disciple and close friend to Parmenides.1 Near the middle of the fifth century B.C.E., the two traveled to Athens together as colleagues and friends..

Zeno's famous paradoxes are what support his importance. One of his most well-known paradoxes is "Achilles and the Tortoise"2. According to this paradox, Achilles would never be able to run past the tortoise in a race. Assume that Achilles runs 100 times faster than the tortoise and there is about one meter of distance in between the two. By the time Achilles runs this distance, the tortoise has already traveled 1/100 of this distance. Now Achilles has to run another 1/100 of a meter, but by the time Achilles has traveled this distance, the tortoise has now traveled 1/100 of the latter and so and so forth. This process continues to infinitely repeat itself and therefore, Achilles will never be able to get to the Tortoise. An easier to understand and more explainable form of this paradox is used much more frequently today by others. If Achilles is running towards the tortoise, he has to eventually reach a halfway point. When Achilles reaches this point he still has to travel the other half, which can be divided into halves as well. Achilles will run 1/2 of the distance, and then another 1/4 of the distance, another 1/8 of the distance, and so on.3 He will never be able to reach the tortoise because no matter how close he gets to the tortoise, he still has to travel half of the distance. (See Fig. 1). This paradoxical theory may or may not be true, but either way, it allows humans to question what they already know about reality. Zeno should not be taught in school because his ideas were major breakthroughs, but he should be taught in our schools because these ideas challenge everything mankind knows about how these things work. This mind set can encourage the youth of the world to think for themselves regardless of popular belief. A good scientist accepts new ideas, but is also willing to challenge them.

Another one of Zeno's proposed paradoxes was the "Flying Arrow"4 paradox. Zeno claimed that the flying arrow is not able to move. This paradox simply states that the arrow always takes up the same amount of space. The arrow cannot move in the space where it is or any space it is not. More specifically stated; the arrow takes up the amount of space that is equivalent to the volume of the arrow. It cannot take up more or less space, nor can it be in two places at the exact same time. There is no space between one instant and the next, and the arrow cannot move instantaneously, so, if the arrow moves, it will take up a different amount of space. This is impossible if the arrow always takes up the same space and according to Parmenides' argument that although 'now' divides the future from the past, it is technically not a part of time. Essentially, what this means, is that time is not made up of instants. Today, there are many human technologies that involve motion. If this paradox is true, a vehicle will never be able to move because it always takes up the same space. This contradicts everything that has so far been considered common knowledge to a majority of humans. In every school across the globe, the basic ideas of physics, such as velocity and momentum, are taught to the world's youth. These paradox theories should be brought up in these discussions and lectures because they introduce a different way of looking at how, or in this case how things do not move through space and time. When teaching a scientific subject, it is good to show multiple view points on the topic from world history, and how people have challenged these common ideas. This encourages children to think for themselves, about the universe around them, and the workings of physical space.

Zeno influenced the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Protagoras, and Gorgia. Without Zeno, humans would not have had these great thinkers. Zeno's theories caused Plato to write the dialogue Parmenides, a dialogue between Zeno, Parmenides, Socrates, and other well-known philosophical thinkers from Athens. The long and complicated exchange of words recorded by Plato tells today's historians about how Zeno supported his paradox claims about change. In the dialogue, it is made clear that Zeno must give very supporting evidence for his theory in order for any of the other philosophers to accept his new idea as a possibility. What Zeno did was create an argument based on new ways of thinking that he came up with and then defended these new ideas with logical thinking and evidence.

As time has progressed, human knowledge has continued to expand. The existing space that humans are aware of has grown over the millennia. The human race has advanced from only seeing a part of earth, to only a small amount of visible space around the Earth, to a solar system that we reside in, to seeing that this solar system is only a miniscule part of a galaxy, and to finding that our galaxy is only a microscopic part of a inconceivably large universe that is still expanding to this day. This perspective of the universe that all life lives in would never have existed to the human race had no one question the logic and common knowledge of a past era. Zeno, may or may not have been correct about his paradox theories, but none the less, he still shows himself to today's people as one who questioned everything that humans know of about physics. All humans should try to think freely in a way that challenges what mankind already knows of and possibly shed new light over things that humans do not already see. This way of thinking starts in human education. If human children are not taught in a way that tells them to think for themselves, they might not ever learn how. Instead of just teaching what humans already know. Educators should teach young humans to think in a way that can help them learn things that are not already known. The youth of tomorrow should be taught to think for themselves in a way that can help add to the massive database of information that is human knowledge. One of the figures that can be used as a prime example, and a role model for young thinkers, is Zeno of the Eleatic school.

A man that has explained in a very effective manner, just how Zeno came to these conclusions is  a High School world history teacher. In a dialogue between him and a student of his, he clearly explains why Zeno thought these things. One of his students asked him, "How is it that Zeno came up with these paradoxes?". The instructor was quick to respond in saying, "Because he actually sat down and thought about things, maybe you should try it sometime."5 The student was surprised by this response, but thought about it for a while. This young student continued to think about the world around him and how the universe around him worked. These kinds of things are not typically taught in today's schools but they need to be. Zeno of Elea was a great thinker, even if few people believed in his paradoxes. He was a great thinker because he challenged what people had taught him with his own theories and ideas. He looked at the world around him, thought about it, and came up with scientific explanations of reasoning to back up his paradoxical theories.

"I see, Parmenides, that Zeno would like to be not only one with you in friendship but your second self in his writings too; he puts what you say in another way, and would fain make believe that he is telling us something which is new."6 Socrates complimented the way that Zeno is able to manipulate Parmenides's words in a way that make them sound different in order to get more recognition from other philosophical thinkers. Zeno also wants to continue Parmenides' studies as a friend and colleague by using these paradoxes.

Teaching the youth of the world about this man would help the young people of society learn new thinking skills early on. By thinking deeply on subjects that are already common knowledge to humans, people can think critically about the universe they live in instead of just living in it. If humans did not question things, we would still believe in theories such as spontaneous generation, or that Earth is the center of the universe. Instead of just blindly following the knowledge they already have, humans should question their surroundings and what they already know. Human knowledge is vast, but there is still so much that humans as a species do not yet understand or are aware of.


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1 "Zeno of Elea." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
2 ibid
3 ibid
4 ibid
5 Thomas Ievoli (History Teacher at FAU High School).
6 Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett. Parmenides. Forgotten Books: 2008.




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BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Zeno of Elea." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (May 8, 2012). www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2…

Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett. Parmenides. Forgotten Books: 2008.

Proclus, trans. Glenn R. Morrow and John M. Dillon. Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Parmenides. Princeton University Press: 1992

Thomas Ievoli. (History Teacher)
This is an academic essay I wrote for a 9th grade history class. I would put under the "Academic Essays" category, but in my opinion it has enough philosophical elements to be considered Philosophical Literature.

It's about a philosopher I admire because of his radical way of thinking. In my opinion he doesn't get enough credit for what he did. This paper explains why I think he should be taught in the classrooms today.

Enjoy!

I worked on this a while back and recently re discovered it under hundreds of documents in my Google Drive. I'm pretty proud of it!

Also, the student in Paragraph 7 was me. True story.

Constructive criticism is much appreciated.
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WearyWere's avatar
Dammit Ron you broke my brain!