Zeno of Elea

(ca. 495-430 B.C.)

Greek Philosopher and Mathematician

Paradoxes of Motion
Zeno is most known for his paradoxes, which

contributed to the development of logical and

mathematical rigour and were unsolvable until the

precise ideas of continuity and infinity were

developed.

Introduction
Philosopher Aristotle dubbed him the "creator of

dialectic," and Bertrand Russell credited him with

laying the basis of modern logic. From the Greek

colony of Elea in southern Italy, he was an important

Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He subscribed to and

advocated Parmenides' Monist doctrines.

Life
Zeno was said to have visited Athens when Socrates

was still a young man, with Parmenides just 25 years

his junior. Was praised as a "universal critic", skilled in

arguing both sides of any question. Spent his entire

life expanding and elucidating Parmenide's

philosophical theory.

Work
Zeno's paradoxes were one of the earliest examples of a

type of dialectical syllogism or argument by contradiction

known as reductio ad absurdum. He argued that any

quantity of space (or time) must be made up of ultimate

indivisible units or be infinitely divisible.

Facts
His paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell regarded as

"immeasurably complex and profound," are his most famous

works. Zeno's arguments are possibly the earliest examples of a

proof process known as reductio ad absurdum, which literally

means "to reduce to the absurd." He used this damaging form of

reasoning to such a degree that he became well-known for it.

Zeno of Elea. (n.d.). www.philosophybasics.com. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from

https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_zeno_elea.html

Zeno of Elea Facts for Kids. (n.d.). Zeno of Elea Facts for Kids; kids.kiddle.co. Retrieved

March 8, 2022, from

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the%20inventor%20of%20dialectic.
 PARMENIDES

Born ca.515 B.C.

Life
Parmenides was a philosopher from the city of Elea, a Greek
colony on the Italian peninsula. He was born some time
around 515 BCE into a wealthy family. It was said that he had
a sharp legal mind, and he was responsible for drawing up

the laws of the city. He may also have been a student of the
philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon, although this is
disputed; and there is evidence he was influenced by the
Pythagorean philosophers.

He has been considered the "Founder of ontology or

metaphysics and has influenced the whole history of Western
philosophy.

Contribution

Parmenides' great contribution to philosophy was "the

method of reasoned proof for assertions".

Philosophy

" Parmenides prescribes two views of reality. In "the way

of truth" (a part of the poem), he explains how all reality
is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless,
uniform, and necessary. In "the way of opinion",
Parmenides explains the world of appearances, in which
one's sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are
false and deceitful, yet he does offer a cosmology.

The poet philosopher

Parmenides's single philosophical work was called "On
Nature"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides
https://www.lookingforwisdom.com/parmenides/


Empedocles

(ca. 490-430 B.C.)

inventor of rhetoric and the founder of the science of medicine in Italy.

Biography
Empedocles was born at Acragas, on Sicily's south coast. Acragas is a Greek
name, while Agrigentum is the Latin name for the town. Later, the town was
known as Girgenti, and most recently, it was known as Agrigento. It was one of
the most magnificent towns in antiquity until it was destroyed by the
Carthaginians in 406 BC. It was a wealthy city with the greatest Greek culture
during Empedocles' reign. Some Pythagoreans had arrived after being
assaulted at their center at Croton.

Empedocles grew up in a wealthy aristocratic household. He traveled across

the Greek world, totally immersed in the enormous hunger for knowledge and
understanding that captivated that portion of the globe.

Theory
His extraordinary life Empedocles devised a
theory of natural selection; proposed that
everything in existence is made up of
different combinations of four elements: air,
fire, wind, and earth; recognized the weight
of air; stated that the speed of light is finite;
and made a statement equivalent to the
modern law that mass is conserved in
chemical reactions.

Works
Empedocles' work has survived more than any other Presocratic. These are
mostly quotations from Aristotle and Plutarch. Ancient texts attribute to
Empedocles plays and a medical treatise, but only fragments have survived
(Katharmoi). Almost all ancient authors mention portions from On Nature with
the title of the book they came from, but just two are given to the
Purifications. The pieces were thus placed in On Nature reconstructions, whilst
Purifications reconstructions were placed in On Nature. In reality, several of
Empedocles' writings appear incompatible. The new gods are four dead
impersonal elements and two cosmic forces of attraction and repulsion, Love
and Strife. A Pythagorean mystic, Empedocles produced Purifications either
to refute the mechanical materialist viewpoint of On Nature, or as a
complement to On Nature, looking at things from a different perspective.

Perception and Thoughts

Empedocles seems to be the first philosopher to explain
how humans perceive things. Aristotle and Theophrastus
challenged his hypothesis that effluences penetrate pores
in the sense organs. Because pores and effluences vary in
size and form, only particular effluences access certain
sense-organs if they meet the right sized pores. Similarly,
we sense bright colors with fire in the eye, dark colors with
water, and scent with breath in the nose.

https://mathshistory.st-
andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Empedocles/#:~:text=Empedocles%20was%20a%20Greek%20
philosopher,science%20of%20medicine%20in%20Italy.

D O'Brien, Empedocles' Cosmic Cycle (Cambridge, 1969).

https://iep.utm.edu/empedocl/