Zhi Nuo's heyday was about 468 BC, and his greatest contribution in the history of philosophy was to defend parmenides's ontological thought. In parmenides's view, "existence" is immortal, unique and unchangeable, while Zhi Nuo's thought denies "movement" and "richness". However, Zhi Nuo's strength made him a little stronger, and he fell into a "sophistry" situation because of overcorrection. The "sophistry" mentioned here is a manifestation of sophistry, which deliberately refers to truth as falsehood and falsehood as truth.
In order to defend parmenides, Zhi Nuo constructed his argument in the form of paradox, which seems to have some truth, but is actually self-contradictory.
Paradox 1: Dichotomy
Zeno Paradox 1: Dichotomy
Zhi Nuo: "When a person walks from point A to point B, he must first walk 1/2, then walk 1/2 of the remaining total distance, and then walk the remaining1/2 ..."
Then in this way, this person will never go from A to B. Paradox 2: Accili races with the tortoise.
Zeno Paradox II: Archer and Turtle Race
Accili, the fastest hero in ancient Greece, ran a race with a tortoise. The tortoise can climb a certain distance first, and then climb a certain distance after running this distance in Archie. After Accili ran this distance, the tortoise climbed another distance, so that Accili could never catch up with the tortoise. In other words, a fast runner can never catch up with a slow runner.
Zhi Nuo's first two paradoxes are similar in that they deny the continuity of motion. Zhi Nuo theoretically divided motion into countless moments, and thought that every moment was static, but this was not the case. In fact, the movement is continuous, but Zhi Nuo doesn't admit the facts in the sense of experience, he only accepts what is obtained through rational thinking.
Zhi Nuo's idea is to "recognize" this movement temporarily, and then reveal this paradox through rational analysis. By denying the continuity of movement, he achieved the goal of denying "movement"
Paradox 3: the arrow does not move.
Zeno's Paradox III: Arrows Don't Move
If an arrow shoots from point A to point B, then every journey from A to B can be divided into countless moments. At every moment, the arrow occupies a position, so it is stationary, that is, the arrow stays in various positions instead of flying from one position to another.
The result of this argument is that things are not moving, and movement may be just an illusion. However, Zhi Nuo made a mistake. Theoretically, he divided the motion into countless discontinuous segments and turned the stillness into absolute. But in fact, the movement is continuous, just like an arrow shooting from A to B is a continuous movement process. You can't see the arrow staying somewhere between a and B.
Paradox 4: once equals half the time.
Zhi Nuo's fourth paradox is that "once is half the time". This is a pure mathematical game and a concept of relative speed. We need a chart to illustrate it.
Zeno Paradox 4: Once equals half the time.
Suppose there are three rows of objects, A, B and C. The objects in row A are stationary, while the objects in row B and C move in opposite directions and at the same speed.
From B4 to A4, it takes the same time for C 1 to reach A 1.
During this period, B4 passes through two positions in line A and four positions in line C. ..
The number of b's passing through c is twice that of a. Therefore, it takes twice as long for line B to pass through C as it does through A, or half as long for line B to pass through A..
But in fact, B4 and C 1 arrive at A4 and A 1 at the same time.
So once is half.
These are Zhi Nuo's four paradoxes.
It seems ridiculous now, but for the Greeks at that time, these arguments were very confusing. Zhi Nuo's argument is to reverse common sense, cultivate people's thinking habit of knowing the world in the form of pure logic, and deny the truth in reality and feeling with the truth of thinking.
All his arguments are only to draw a conclusion: denying the possibility of motion, motion does not exist, only existence itself is motionless. All this is to defend parmenides.
Looking back at history, although Zhi Nuo's argument has a certain sophistry color, his theory also contains the bud of dialectics. His practice of attaching importance to logical reasoning and neglecting sensory experience is very important to promote the development of western metaphysics. We should also acknowledge Zhi Nuo's important contribution in the history of western philosophy.