Zeno and the Tortoise

Author: Nicholas Fearn
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802199089
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
From the author of The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions, a philosophical guide that’s “great for sounding cleverer than you really are” (Men’s Health). For those who don’t know the difference between Lucretius’s spear and Hume’s fork, Zeno and the Tortoise explains not just who each philosopher was and what he thought, but exactly how he came to think in the way he did. In a witty and engaging style that incorporates everything from Sting to cell phones to Bill Gates, Fearn demystifies the ways of thought that have shaped and inspired humanity—among many others, the Socratic method, Descartes’s use of doubt, Bentham’s theory of utilitarianism, Rousseau’s social contract, and, of course, the concept of common sense. Along the way, there are fascinating biographical snippets about the philosophers themselves: the story of Thales falling down a well while studying the stars, and of Socrates being told by a face-reader that his was the face of a monster who was capable of any crime. Written in twenty-five short chapters, each readable during the journey to work, Zeno and the Tortoise is the ideal course in intellectual self-defense. Acute, often irreverent, but always authoritative, this is a unique introduction to the ideas that have shaped us all. “A large, crafty bag of brilliant tools . . . an academic arsenal of philosophical weapons that are keen for slicing and stabbing through the slippery profoundities of day-to-day decision-making and right into the middle of dinner-party conversations of which you would have otherwise been left out.” —Philosophy Now

What the Tortoise Said to Achilles

Author: Lewis Carroll
Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN: 8726645726
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 9

Book Description
When a tortoise challenges a great Greek hero to use his logic in order to decipher a simple philosophical argument, slight chaos ensues. ‘What the Tortoise Said to Achilles’ is an endless cycle of suppositions and deductions. A refined piece of philosophical writing, Caroll’s discussion was one of the first steps towards paradoxically explaining logical truth. His clever prose makes this novel an essential read for budding philosophers and logic aficionados. Lewis Caroll (1832-1898) was a British author. He was famed for his novel ‘Alice in Wonderland' and its sequel ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. Both of which have been successfully adapted to film and stage. Aside from this, he was also a mathematician, professional photographer, and clergyman. His colorful plotlines, powerful imagery, and endless imagination earned him the title of one of the most notable authors of the nineteenth century. Among his other notable works are the poetic collection "Phantasmagoria and Other Poems", the poem "The Hunting of the Snark", and the fairy novel "Sylvie and Bruno".

The Motion Paradox

Author: Joseph Mazur
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780525949923
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
Traces the epic history of Greek philosopher Zeno's yet-unsolved paradox of motion, citing the contributions of top minds to the scientific community's understanding of the elusive basic structure of time and space.

What the Tortoise Taught Us

Author: Burton Porter
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442205539
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
What the Tortoise Taught Us offers a lively, concise journey through western philosophy that explores the lives of major philosophers, their ideas, and how their thinking continues to influence our lives today.

The Infinite Tortoise

Author: Joel Levy
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 1782436383
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 189

Book Description
A clear, concise and fascinating guide to philosophical thought experiments and how they've shaped our understanding of the world.

Zeno's Paradoxes

Author: Wesley C. Salmon
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872205604
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
A reprint of the Bobbs-Merrill edition of 1970. These essays lead the reader through the land of the wonderful shrinking genie to the warehouse where the infinity machines are kept. By careful examination of a lamp that is switched on and off infinitely many times, or the workings of a machine that prints out an infinite decimal expansion of pi, we begin to understand how it is possible for Achilles to overtake the tortoise. The concepts that form the basis of modern science---space, time, motion, change, infinity---are examined and explored in this edition. Includes an updated bibliography.

Zeno's Paradox

Author: Joseph Mazur
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780452289178
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
The fascinating story of an ancient riddle and what it reveals about the nature of time and space Three millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Zeno constructed a series of logical paradoxes to prove that motion is impossible. Today, these paradoxes remain on the cutting edge of our investigations into the fabric of space and time. Zeno's Paradox uses the motion paradox as a jumping-off point for an exploration of the twenty-five-hundred-year quest to uncover the true nature of the universe. From Galileo to Einstein to Stephen Hawking, some of the greatest minds in history have tackled the problem and made spectacular breakthroughs, but through it all, the paradox of motion remains.

Plato's Parmenides

Author: Samuel Scolnicov
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520925114
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 207

Book Description
Of all Plato’s dialogues, the Parmenides is notoriously the most difficult to interpret. Scholars of all periods have disagreed about its aims and subject matter. The interpretations have ranged from reading the dialogue as an introduction to the whole of Platonic metaphysics to seeing it as a collection of sophisticated tricks, or even as an elaborate joke. This work presents an illuminating new translation of the dialogue together with an extensive introduction and running commentary, giving a unified explanation of the Parmenides and integrating it firmly within the context of Plato's metaphysics and methodology. Scolnicov shows that in the Parmenides Plato addresses the most serious challenge to his own philosophy: the monism of Parmenides and the Eleatics. In addition to providing a serious rebuttal to Parmenides, Plato here re-formulates his own theory of forms and participation, arguments that are central to the whole of Platonic thought, and provides these concepts with a rigorous logical and philosophical foundation. In Scolnicov's analysis, the Parmenides emerges as an extension of ideas from Plato's middle dialogues and as an opening to the later dialogues. Scolnicov’s analysis is crisp and lucid, offering a persuasive approach to a complicated dialogue. This translation follows the Greek closely, and the commentary affords the Greekless reader a clear understanding of how Scolnicov’s interpretation emerges from the text. This volume will provide a valuable introduction and framework for understanding a dialogue that continues to generate lively discussion today.

Paradoxes from A to Z

Author: Michael Clark
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415228084
Category : Paradox
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
'This sentence is false'. Is it? If a hotel with an infinite number of rooms is fully occupied, can it still accommodate a new guest? How can we have emotional responses to fiction, when we know that the objects of our emotions do not exist?

The Tortoise and the Hare

Author: Aesop
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1404865039
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 18

Book Description
A boastful hare meets his match in this attractive retelling of Aesop's famed tale.