Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in PhilosophyRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
Russell, Bertrand
Knowledge, Theory of; Logical atomism
thing moved must needs touch all the points of the space: it will then
go through an infinite collection in a finite time, which is
impossible."
Zeno appeals here, in the first place, to the fact that any distance,
however small, can be halved. From this it follows, of course, that
there must be an infinite number of points in a line. But, Aristotle
represents him as arguing, you cannot touch an infinite number of points
_one by one_ in a finite time. The words "one by one" are important. (1)
If _all_ the points touched are concerned, then, though you pass through
them continuously, you do not touch them "one by one." That is to say,
after touching one, there is not another which you touch next: no two
points are next each other, but between any two there are always an
infinite number of others, which cannot be enumerated one by one. (2)
If, on the other hand, only the successive middle points are concerned,
obtained by always halving what remains of the course, then the points
are reached one by one, and, though they are infinite in number, they
are in fact all reached in a finite time. His argument to the contrary
may be supposed to appeal to the view that a finite time must consist of
a finite number of instants, in which case what he says would be
perfectly true on the assumption that the possibility of continued
dichotomy is undeniable. If, on the other hand, we suppose the argument
directed against the partisans of infinite divisibility, we must suppose
it to proceed as follows:[42] "The points given by successive halving of
the distances still to be traversed are infinite in number, and are
reached in succession, each being reached a finite time later than its
predecessor; but the sum of an infinite number of finite times must be
infinite, and therefore the process will never be completed." It is very
possible that this is historically the right interpretation, but in this
form the argument is invalid. If half the course takes half a minute,
and the next quarter takes a quarter of a minute, and so on, the whole
course will take a minute. The apparent force of the argument, on this
interpretation, lies solely in the mistaken supposition that there
cannot be anything beyond the whole of an infinite series, which can be
seen to be false by observing that 1 is beyond the whole of the infinite
series 1/2, 3/4, 7/8, 15/16, ...
[42] _Cf._ Mr C. D. Broad, "Note on Achilles and the Tortoise,"
_Mind_, N.S., vol. xxii. pp. 318-9.
The second of Zeno's arguments is the one concerning Achilles and the
tortoise, which has achieved more notoriety than the others. It is
paraphrased by Burnet as follows:[43]
"Achilles will never overtake the tortoise. He must first reach the
place from which the tortoise started. By that time the tortoise will
have got some way ahead. Achilles must then make up that, and again the
tortoise will be ahead. He is always coming nearer, but he never makes
up to it."[44]
[43] _Op. cit._
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