No label defined (Q4789054)

The goal of this note is to try to understand what philosophical problems stem from Zeno's paradoxes of motion, analysed from the point of view of modern science. The classical problems considered are Achilles and the Tortoise and dual arrow problem and the problem of stages. The author quotes some classical authors (such as D. Hilbert and P. Bernays, H. Weyl, G. Withrow, A. Bergson, Schoenfeld, Russell, A. Grünbaum, etc.) considering the subject and discusses their point of view, offering his own opinions. He relates the first two problems to the ordinal number \(\omega\) and the second one to its dual \(\omega^*\) respectively and the ending (beginning) step as \(\omega+1\) (\(1+\omega^*\)). One related aspect mentioned is discreteness or continuity of time and space. He maintains that the modern science (such as mathematics and physics) has spectacularly confirmed the Eleatics' philosophy adopting a statistical approach to motion. The author gives a computer program (called \`\` Driving'') by which he illustrates motion as a process. He concludes that more adequate explanations of motion and the stated paradoxes may be treated better if all variability (changes) in time are viewed through the phenomenon of processes (dynamically), rather than functionally (statically). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0982.00040].