Zeno's Paradox- Spencer Rodman

1. Some background information to start out, the reading immediately tells us, "Zeno was the perfect nemesis to Bergson because as a member of the Eleatic School of pre-Socratic philosophers, he was fully invested in the denial of movement, change, and plurality." This is going to be key in my analysis due to the fact my analysis is about their ideas clashing with one another.

2. Zeno's example of the arrow where he states that an arrow can never reach its target because distance or space it must travel can always be divided an infinite number of times. This is a obviously a paradox that undermines Bergson's theory of motion. The theory Zeno presents is definitely false due to the fact, anything with the right amount of time and right equipment can almost get from any one point to another. At first I was confused by Zeno's thought process later to realize his theory is understandable if there were not already convincing evidence at this point that he is absolutely wrong. You can take his arrow idea and go greater into depth with his comparison between Achilles and the tortoise. The tortoise was given a ten unit head start with Achilles being able to run ten times faster than the tortoise. By Zeno argues in his third paradox, Achilles would never pass the tortoise because every time Achilles attains the point where the tortoise was, the tortoise has progressed a tenth of the distance Achilles has therefore the tortoise will always be ahead. Now we all know how this story ends based on childhood novelty but you would assume that Achilles would swoop right by and win the race basically immediately after they started with how fast he ran and the tortoise left in the dust. Zeno suggests that because of the ten unit lead in the beginning that the tortoise would always be ahead due to the infinite amount of time it would take for Achilles to get to from the starting line past Achilles. I completely disagree with this because the Achilles is 10times faster and should annihilate him unless of course he gets injured.

2. Bergson argues for the indivisibility of movement as a continuous whole. "Bergson admits to the fact that in order to produce the illusion of movement there must be real movement somewhere. He locates it in the apparatus, the projector, which moves the film forward." Although Zeno's paradox is false because we know something can go from one point to the next, Bergson admits that to show movement it must be an illusion when he later states, "the movement slips through the interval." Meaning to have one thing look as if it were moving, you have to have something that is still, to create the illusion. Only through this Bergson claims can be the result to avoid complete stillness in a picture. I think that he is right because if you take a picture of lets say a human, and wanted to make it look as if he were moving at a fast rate you would need to make the background move fast, creating the illusion of a moving human.


3. Finally, I do not believe Zeno can relatively disprove the possibility of movement, and certainly cannot convince me that there is no passage of time because over the years I have learned that time is of the essence. Everything evolves around time in real time and illusion time. With time anything can be done. If you could stop time or make it not exist, everything would be put on hold and nothing would be accomplished. When it comes to film I agree with certain techniques you can make time stop yet at the same time keep it going in the sense of illusion but I believe in the film industry you can only get by with slowing down time not the complete annihilation of movement in respect to time.

Office Hours 2/26-3/1 (brooke)

I've added more office hours. You can sign up by posting a comment (be sure that nobody has posted a comment for that time). Depending on what you want to talk about, bring your reading, your 10-on-1 and passages, any drafts of your midterm, etc. If you can't make the time you signed up for please let me know.


TUES 2/27 (at cafe strada, bancroft and college)
6:15 mara


WED 2/28 (Rhetoric Library, top floor in NW corner of Dwinelle Rm 7337)
11:30
11:45
12:30 leesha
12.45 olivia
1
1.15 anthony
1.30 robin
1:45 cathy
2 alina
2:15 chloe
2.30 spencer
2:45 johnny