no smallest space that cannot be further divided. The contradictions
that follow from these demonstrable contents of the idea of space are
endless. The relation of time to space is another source of
contradictory ideas. I shall perhaps, however, best make the meaning
of this self-contradictory character of our ordinary ideas clear by
following out a definite illustration. What is known as the antinomy
of motion is probably familiar to everyone from the well-known paradox
of the Greek philosopher Zeno. The flying arrow, he said, does not
move, because if it did it would be in two places at one and the same
time, and that is impossible. I will now put this same paradox of
movement in a form which, so far as I know, it has not been presented
before. My illustration will involve the idea of causation as well as
that of movement. If we suppose a space to be fully occupied, we shall
agree that nothing within that space can move without thereby
displacing whatever occupies the position into which it moves. That is
to say, the movement of any occupant of one position must cause the
displacement of the occupant of the new position into which he moves.
But on the other hand it is equally clear that the displacement of the
occupant of the new position is a prior condition of the possibility of
the movement of {35} the mover, for nothing can move unless there is an
unoccupied place for it to move into, and there is no unoccupied place
unless it has been vacated by its occupant before the movement begins.
We have therefore the clear contradiction that a thing can only move
when something else which it causes to move has already moved. Now if
we reflect on it we shall see that this is exactly the position we
occupy in our three-dimensional space. The space which surrounds us is
occupied, and therefore we cannot move until a way is made clear for
us, and nothing makes way for us unless we move. We cannot move
through stone walls because we cannot displace solid matter, but we can
move through air and water because we are able to displace these. The
problem is the same. My movement displaces the air, but there is no
movement until the air is displaced. Can we escape the contradiction
by supposing the displacement is the cause and the movement the effect.
Are we, like people in a theatre queue, only able to move from behind
forward as the place is vacated for us in front? In that case we
should be driven to the incredible supposition that the original cause
or condition of our movement is the previous movement of something at
the outskirts of our occupied space, that this somewhat moving into the
void made possible the movement of the occupant of the space next
adjoining, and so on until after a lapse of time which may be ages,
which may indeed be infinite, the possibility of movement is opened to
us. In fact we must believe that the effect of our movement--namely,
the displacement of the previous occupants from the positions we occupy
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