Zeno of Elea is an ancient Greek thinker, logician and philosopher. Aristotle and Plato relied on his ideas, his works are interesting and informative for modern mankind.

The fate of Zeno of Elea is striking in its complexity and tragedy. There are legends about him, he is admired and criticized.

Who is he - Zeno of Elea, whose biography is so contradictory and vague, and social activity so varied and entertaining? Let's find out.

Childhood

The future philosopher was born in Elea, approximately in 490 BC.

Lucania, to which he belonged ancient city Elea is the territory of modern southern Italy, famous among the population of that time for its beautiful lush meadows. Cattle breeding and viticulture flourished in Lucania, it differed from other areas in its extraordinary wealth, fertility and densely populated population.

Elea was considered a Greek colony on the territory of Lucania. The city was located on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea and was considered the center of the philosophical and cultural life of the entire region.

Zeno of Elea was the son of Televtagoras. Most likely, his family was prosperous and noble, since from an early age the boy had the opportunity to study with the brightest and most influential minds of that time - Xenophanes and Parmenides.

Teacher Xenophanes

Xenophanes of Colophon, one of the teachers of Zeno, is an ancient Greek poet and philosopher, the forerunner of the Eleatic school.

Being a very educated and deeply thinking person, Xenophanes criticized the religious system common in those days. He argued that the gods of Olympus are folk fiction, and that mythology is solely a figment of the human imagination.

Observant and prone to mockery, the ancient Greek sage fearlessly criticized the views, worldviews and traditions of his contemporaries. For example, he argued that sporting achievements are less important than philosophical wisdom.

However, rejecting the Olympic gods and predictors of the future, Xenophanes remained a deeply religious person, representing God as one and all-powerful.

The teachings and beliefs adopted from Xenophanes had a huge impact on the life and worldview of Zeno.

Teacher Parmenides

Another mentor of the Eleatic philosopher was Parmenides, an ancient Greek philosopher, a noble and wealthy man, the legislator of Elea, the founder and main representative of the Eleatic school.

Parmenides had close friendly ties with his young ward. Some sources refer to him as the adoptive father of Zeno. According to some historical works, the young student was the lover of Parmenides' wife. However, such information is contradictory and unconfirmed.

Be that as it may, Parmenides, who was fifty years older than Zeno, had a strong influence on the thinking and principles of his pupil.

What were the views of Parmenides? He explored the original nature of reality, the world and being, separated the concepts of truth and opinion, rejected sensations and experience as a source of knowledge.

Subsequently, his teachings and reasonings were formed and disseminated by Zeno.

Life of Zeno of Elea

Zeno was a very perceptive and inquisitive person, in constant reflection and research. During his philosophical research, the thinker traveled to Athens and had long conversations with Socrates.

We know very little about the life of the Eleatic sage.

Various sources say that he was an active political figure, while he adhered to democratic convictions, and even took part in the fight against the cruel tyrant Nearchus.

The opposition was uneven. Zeno was captured and subjected to cruel sophisticated torture. Without surrendering his like-minded people, he died in agony, like a hero.

There are also many legends and rumors about the death of the philosopher. Some say that during the torture, he cunningly forced the cruel despot, dressed in a royal robe, to come closer, and bit off his ear. Others claim that he bit off his own tongue and spat it in the face of a ferocious tyrant.

Be that as it may, Zeno of Elea died a heroic death, without betraying his allies, and remaining true to his convictions. At that time, the ancient Greek philosopher was about sixty years old.

Mentions of a sage

First of all, Zeno is famous for his scientific reasoning, or aporias. Many of them are still heated scientific discussions and disputes.

The works of Zeno that have come down to modern times are contained in the expositions of Aristotle and his commentators. He was mentioned by such prominent ancient Greek philosophers as Plato, Diogenes, Plutarch.

Before getting acquainted with the concept of Zeno's reasoning, let's first find out what historical time he lived in and what cause he was a follower of.

Philosophy of the time

In order to objectively assess what an invaluable contribution Zeno of Elea made to the development of logic, philosophy and history, it is necessary to understand the state of Greek philosophy in the middle of the fifth century BC.

Many noble thinkers of those years were looking for the main element from which the Universe was formed. The Ionian sages of Asia Minor could not come to a common denominator in any way, what is the root cause of all things: water, air or something indefinite, hitherto unknown. They were of the opinion that everything in the universe is changeable and full of opposites.

There was another, completely analogous worldview of Pythagoras and his followers, who believed that the main element, or root cause, is a number, or a discrete unit endowed with a spatial dimension.

Zeno's teacher Parmenides criticized both theories, arguing that the primary element does not exist, since the Universe is an immovable, unchanging and dense ball, where everything is one and not divided into parts.

philosophical school

These and other studies of Parmenides laid the foundation of the so-called Elea school - the ancient Greek philosophical school of the early period, whose followers were Zeno of Elea and Meliss of Samos.

The essence of this trend was not to deal with questions of natural science, but to develop a doctrine of being.

The Eleatic school took as a basis for its teachings the principle that beings are continuous, one, eternal, indestructible and unchanging. From this comes the unity and immobility of being. He cannot be divided into parts and has nowhere to move. Emptiness is non-existence, which means it does not exist.

Also, the Eleatic school was of the opinion that truth can only be known by the mind, and that even an opinion, since it is formed by feelings, is incorrect and inadequate in reflecting the truth.

The Eleatic school as a whole, like Zeno in particular, has a huge impact on the philosophical science of our time. The interest of the Eleatics in the problems of being was developed in the classical teachings of Plato and Aristotle. And although the representatives of the Eleatic school did not fully cope with their task (they never found a solution to the questions about the relationship of unity to plurality, etc.), the Eleatics became the founders of eristics, sophistry and idealistic dialectics.

Zeno's paradoxical reasoning

What is remarkable about the philosophical works and searches of the student of Parmenides, a representative of the Eleatic school?

The aporias of Zeno of Elea affected such concepts as movement, space and multitude, proving the inconsistency of their concepts.

What is the peculiarity of Zeno's philosophical reasoning? Unlike his mentor Parmenides, who tried to prove his theories with the help of logical chains, Zeno of Elea, whose philosophy was the result of the teacher's views, used a different kind of tactic.

Instead of consistently proving his point of view, Zeno resorted to another method of argumentation - from the contrary. That is, by asking his opponent a number of thoughtful questions, Zeno made him see all the paradoxicalness and absurdity of his position. This method of conducting a dispute is called dialectical. No wonder Aristotle considered Zeno the first dialectician.

The aporias of Zeno of Elea, first of all, related to the movement and the multiplicity of things. It is difficult to say what motivated the thinker when he formulated his reasoning. Most likely, his aporias were the result of reflections on the early mathematical teachings of the Pythagoreans.

Movement paradoxes

Zeno of Elea, whose main ideas are conveyed in the paradoxical reasoning that has come down to us, tried to subordinate to logical understanding those mathematical and physical knowledge that seemed to him inconsistent and contradictory.

It should be mentioned that Zeno did not reject movement as such. He simply proved the incompatibility of movement with the concept of continuity as a set. This point of view is clearly seen in Zeno's famous aporia "Achilles and the tortoise". In it, the ancient Greek philosopher tried to prove that Achilles would never catch up with the tortoise, since first he needs to get to the place from which it starts moving, and during this time the tortoise will get to the next point of movement and so on ad infinitum. And although now we can calculate with an accuracy of thousandths when Achilles will catch up with the tortoise, philosophical questions raised in aporia still haunt the minds of modern logicians and mathematicians.

The next aporia against movement is “Arrow”, where the ancient sage tried to prove that a flying arrow remains motionless in relation to the space it occupies.

Zeno's aporias against motion, such as "Achilles and the Tortoise", "Arrow", "Dichotomy" and others, are based on the erroneous axiom of ancient mathematicians that the sum of an infinite number of quantities is necessarily infinite.

Other paradoxes

The ancient Greek thinker was only interested in contradictory concepts. After all, what is perceived inconsistently cannot exist! Similar reasoning is reflected in other aporias of Zeno - against plurality, place and other concepts.

For example, the aporia "About place" states that all existing objects fit in space. So there is space for space (and so on). Therefore, the concept of “place” exists only in relation to the bodies located in it.

Also of interest is the aporia about the “Medimne of grain”, which raises the question, why does one grain fall silently, but the fall of a sack of grain causes a lot of noise? With his paradox, Zeno wanted to prove that the part is different from the whole, which means that infinite divisibility is practically impossible.

Influence

Most of the aporias of Zeno of Elea, although considered erroneous and outdated, still occupy prominent minds of our time with their complexity and logical confirmation. They had a huge impact on ancient Greek culture, philosophy and logic.

"WHY DOES ACHILLES NEVER CATCH THE TURTLE?" (ZENON OF ELEA)

O life path Very little is known about the famous ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea. More precisely, scientists know nothing more about his biography, except for the approximate dates of birth and death. It is believed that he was born around 490 BC. e., and died in 430 BC. e. Zeno entered the history of philosophy as one of the most important representatives of the Eleatic school. Zeno was the first to introduce the dialogic form into philosophy. Therefore, he can rightly be considered one of the founders of dialectics as the art of comprehending the truth through a dispute or interpretation of opposing opinions. Zeno became famous in antiquity, but his treatises, dialogues and, most importantly, his famous aporias have not become outdated to this day.

Zeno devoted most of his famous treatises to the idea of ​​the illusory nature of the diversity of the world and movement. He believed that if everything that exists in the world is plural, then it can be both so small that it does not have a size at all, and so large that it can be infinite.

Such reasoning is called in philosophy - antinomy, that is, the unresolvability of contradictions. In his antinomies, Zeno poses the problem of the finiteness and infinity of the world, the problem of the infinite divisibility of finite things. However, despite the fact that Zeno described the solution to this problem in great detail in his writings, the correctness of the path he followed was called into question already in antiquity.

In his philosophy, Zeno will address such problems as unity and multitude, finite and infinite, more than once, constantly deepening and developing them. In addition, the most famous aporias of Zeno are devoted to these problems.

The word "aporia" is translated from ancient Greek as "the absence of a way out, a dead end, an insurmountable difficulty." Zeno's aporias are devoted precisely to such problems for which a contradiction is found in a strictly logical proof. The most famous aporias of Zeno are called "Dichotomy", "Achilles and the tortoise", "Arrow", "Moving bodies". In them, the philosopher sets as his goal to refute the possibility of movement, which in the end he succeeds.

Let us briefly consider the content of the aporia "Dichotomy". Zeno believes that an object that moves towards a goal must first go only half the way to it, and in order to go through this half, it must first go half of it, and so on ad infinitum. Thus, the movement towards the goal will be so insignificant and slow that it can be considered as non-movement. And from here, Zeno concludes, the object will never reach its goal, since its path is endless, and the object will have to overcome these halves of the path forever. At first glance, this reasoning is completely logical, but Aristotle already noticed an error in it. It can be said that although theoretically time and space are infinitely divisible, in practice this cannot be done. In these aporias, Zeno erroneously considers space as the sum of certain finite segments, while his time is absolutely continuous.

A similar argument can be seen in Zeno's most famous aporia, Achilles and the Tortoise. Here, instead of the abstract object and goal of the previous task, quite concrete Achilles and the tortoise act. According to the condition of the problem, Achilles is behind the turtle. The distance separating them is not beyond human capabilities, but Achilles, despite all his strength, power and extraordinary physical abilities, will never be able to catch up with the tortoise slowly wandering forward.

Zeno proved this paradoxical statement in this way. Since Achilles is behind the turtle, it means that in order to catch up with it, he needs to overcome some distance. However, while Achilles will overcome the space separating them, the tortoise will move forward at least a little. Achilles will also overcome this new distance, but in the meantime the tortoise will again move forward somewhat. This movement will go on ad infinitum, and although the distance will shrink more and more, it will never completely disappear. Therefore, swift-footed Achilles will never overtake a slow-moving tortoise.

With this reasoning, Zeno quite logically proves the absence of any movement, arguing that it is impossible to go through an infinite number of halves of the path in a finite time. However, here he makes the same mistake as in the aporia "Dichotomy" (Aristotle had already pointed it out to him). According to Zeno, as we have already said, time and especially space are infinitely divisible. And although this is a correct, scientifically proven statement, it is absolutely inapplicable to real life. Indeed, it is difficult even to imagine Achilles overcoming a distance of one thousandth of a millimeter. Thus, it becomes quite clear that this aporia of Zeno turns out to be correct in theory, but absolutely wrong in practice.

With his aporias, Zeno baffled many sages of antiquity and modernity. His reflections inspired other thinkers to attempt to resolve these paradoxes, which undoubtedly served as the development of new philosophical teachings. And although by now all his logical paradoxes have been resolved, Zeno, the original thinker of antiquity, forever left his mark on the history of philosophy.

* * *
The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea became famous not only for his aporias, but also for the fact that he tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to overthrow the tyrant Nearchus (according to other sources, Diomedont). When they seized him and began to question him about his accomplices and about the weapons that he was carrying to Lipara, Zenon in response slandered all the tyrant's friends with the aim of leaving them alone. Then he pretended to agree to tell the tyrant the truth about the conspiracy, and, bending down, grabbed his ear with his teeth and did not let go until he was stabbed. According to another version, when Zenon slandered the friends of the tyrant, he asked him if there was anyone else, and then Zenon replied: “Only you, the ruin of our city! - and added, turning to those around him: - I marvel at your cowardice: in order not to suffer like me, you crawl in front of a tyrant! - after that, he bit off his own tongue and spat it in the tyrant's face.

...........................................................

Zeno

The basic ideas of the Eleatic school were brought to full development by Parmenides. His disciples, Zeno (ca. 490-430) and Melissa (ca. 485-425), had only to defend his theory against the objections made by people holding ordinary concepts of things, and look for new arguments. Working in this direction, they wrote prose. Dialectical devices, which Parmenides had put into poetic form, received a more complete technical development in their treatises.

Zeno of Elea, a friend and student of Parmenides, defended the doctrine of the unity of everything that exists, of the illusory nature of everything individual, using dialectical techniques that showed what logical inconsistencies lie in the “opinion” that there really is a world of individual objects that arise and move. Proving that the concepts of movement, of emergence, contradict themselves, Zeno, in the spirit of the main position of the Eleatic school, eliminated these concepts as ghostly and came to the conclusion that nothing changing can exist, which, consequently, there is only a single, unchanging being. .

From the writings of Zeno of Elea, only small fragments have survived. Most of them are in Aristotle's Physics. Zeno's original method gave Aristotle a reason to call him the founder of "dialectics". For ancient authors, the term "dialectic" meant the knowledge of truth through the identification of internal contradictions in the thoughts of the opponent. These contradictions in the thinking of the opponents of the Eleatic school Zeno exposes in his famous "Aporia" (literal translation of the word aporia - "no way out").

Defending the teaching of the Eleatic school about the unity and immutability of Being, Zeno proves that the initial mental foundations of those who reject him (the idea of ​​space as a void, separate from the substance that fills it; belief in the plurality of things and the presence of movement in the world) are false. Zeno convinces that the recognition of these seemingly self-evident postulates leads to irreconcilable contradictions. The truth is the main philosophical provisions of the Eleatic school: emptiness, multiplicity and movement do not exist in the world.

Regarding the empty space external to Being, the substance of space, Zeno says that since it is also Being, then it must be somewhere, in some special “second space”. This second space must reside in the third - and so on ad infinitum. According to the Eleatic school, such an assumption of a plurality of spaces is absurd. This means that space is inseparable from Being, is not a substance external to it, and things inseparable from it cannot be inside it.

The habitual human idea of ​​the infinite multitude of things in the eyes of the Eleatic school and Zeno also suffers from irreconcilable contradictions. If there are an infinite number of things, then each of them has no value (or, what is the same, has an infinitesimal value). Infinity destroys not only the concept of magnitude, but also the concept of number: the sum of the elements of an infinite set does not exist, because the sum must be a certain finite number, and conventional knowledge considers this sum to be infinite. Therefore, the teaching of the Eleatic school about the unity of being must be recognized as correct.

The usual human idea of ​​the existence of movement, according to Zeno, also does not reflect the true metaphysical reality. In the Aporias, the famous "refutations of the movement" are given: "Dichotomy (dividing into two)", "Achilles", "Flying Arrow" and "Stages".

In the Dichotomy, Zeno makes it appear that if we move from one point to another, then we will first have to go half the way between them, then half of the remaining half - and so on ad infinitum. But the movement, which lasts for an infinite time, will never reach the goal. To overcome the path, you must first overcome half of the path, and to overcome half the path, you must first overcome half of the half, and so on ad infinitum. Therefore, the movement will never start.

In the “Flying Arrow” aporia, Zeno proves that if we consider an arrow fired from a bow at every single moment of flight, it turns out that every moment it simultaneously flies and occupies a certain fixed position. At the same time, there is both movement and immobility - therefore, the usual human idea of ​​​​movement is false and meaningless, and the idea of ​​the Eleatic school about the complete immutability and immobility of Being is true. A flying arrow is motionless, since at each moment of time it is at rest, and since it is at rest at every moment of time, it is always at rest.

In the aporia "Achilles", Zeno proves that Achilles, famous for the speed of his run, will never catch up with a tortoise running away from him. Although Achilles runs faster than the tortoise, the distance between them will never turn to zero, because the tortoise, leaving Achilles, in each new period of time will have time to cover a distance that, no matter how small it may be, will never be equal to zero. Zeno therefore asserts that at no point in the run will the distance between Achilles and the tortoise turn to zero, and the former will never overtake the latter.

Let's say Achilles runs ten times faster than the tortoise and is a thousand paces behind it. During the time during which Achilles runs this distance, the tortoise crawls a hundred steps in the same direction. When Achilles has run a hundred steps, the tortoise will crawl another ten steps, and so on. The process will continue indefinitely, Achilles will never catch up with the tortoise.

Meliss

Melissus, a native of Samos, successfully commanded the Samian fleet during the war between Athens and Samos in 440 BC. e. Some authors say that in his youth, Melissus studied with the famous philosopher Heraclitus, but then he joined the Eleatic doctrine, which was completely opposite in meaning. eleic zeno aporia ancient greek

Among the philosophers of the Eleatic school, Melissus stood out for important features. Entirely following the teachings of Xenophanes and Parmenides about the unity, immutability and eternity of true being, he argued that the world can be such only under the condition of its infinity. Other representatives of the Eleatic school, on the contrary, believed that the world is finite and has the shape of a ball.

In addition, Meliss, unlike other Eleatics, believed that the world should be incorporeal, because "if Being had thickness, then it would have parts and would no longer be one." Apparently, Meliss came to the idea of ​​the infinity of Being by the same reasoning. Finite Being would have a certain size, which means that it could be decomposed into parts, and this violates the Eleatic idea of ​​universal unity and the absence of plurality.

Biographical information. Zeno of Elea 1 (c. 490-430 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher. Lived in the city of Elea, was a student of Parmenides; it is known that he died heroically in the struggle against tyranny.

Main works."Disputes", "Against the Philosophers", "On Nature" - several fragments have been preserved.

Philosophical views. He defended and defended the teaching of Parmenides about the One, rejected the reality of sensual being and the plurality of things. Developed aporia(difficulties) proving the impossibility of movement.

Aporia of Zeno. The space in its structure can be either divisible to infinity (continuous), or divisible only up to some limit (discrete), and then there are the smallest, further indivisible intervals of space.

Let us assume that space is divisible only up to a certain limit, then the following aporia takes place.

flying arrow

Consider the movement of an arrow in flight.

Let the arrow occupy certain intervals of space at time t, for example, from 3 to 8.

Movement is a movement in space, therefore, if the arrow moves, then at the next moment in time V it occupies a different interval of space - from 4 to 9.

Each interval of space is not divisible, hence the arrow can either completely occupy it, or not occupy it, but cannot occupy it partially. Therefore, the arrow cannot first pass through some part of the interval 8-9, since this interval is not divisible. Then gets-

1 Although there was a tradition in ancient Greece to name all philosophers by the city of their birth and/or life (for example, Thales of Miletus), in this textbook this tradition is preserved only for those philosophers whose names coincide. So, in addition to Zeno of Elea, Zeno from Kition will be mentioned below.

Xia that at time t the arrow is motionless in the interval 3-8, and at time t "is motionless in the interval 4-9. Conclusion. There is no movement, but only immobility in various intervals of space.

Let us now assume that space is divisible to infinity, then the following aporia takes place.

Achilles and the Turtle

Preconditions. Achilles and the tortoise stand on the road at a distance L from each other. They simultaneously begin to move in the same direction (Achilles runs with all his might, and the tortoise crawls at its snail's speed).

Thesis.

Proof. To catch up with the Turtle, Achilles must first run the distance L that separated him from the Turtle before starting to move. But during this time, the Turtle will have time to cover some distance L". Therefore, in order to now catch up with the Turtle, Achilles must first run the distance L", etc. But since space is divisible to infinity, between Achilles and the Tortoise there will always be an infinitely small, but still distance that Achilles still needs to run.

Conclusion. Achilles will never catch up with the Turtle.

Thus, whether we admit the infinite divisibility of space or the existence of indivisible intervals of space, we can conclude that motion is impossible.

The aporias of Zeno serve to prove the impossibility of movement in the true, intelligible world. Therefore, the fact that our sense organs tell us that there is movement, or rather

his "appearance" in the sensual, illusory world does not refute the aporias.

Empedocles (Empedocle)

Biographical information. Empedocles (c. 490-430 BC) - an ancient Greek philosopher originally from the city of Akraganta (Sicily); studied with the Pythagoreans: Xenophanes and Parmenides. Known as an epic poet, orator, physician, engineer and philosopher. Many of his contemporaries considered Empedocles a living god. Wanting people to think that the gods took him alive to heaven, Empedocles, sensing the approach of death, threw himself into the mouth of Mount Etna.

Main works."Cleansings", "On Nature" - fragments have been preserved.

Philosophical views.Initial. Empedocles, like most of his predecessors, is a spontaneous materialist. But if they were monists (one element as the beginning), then Empedocles is a pluralist: for him, all four traditional elements are the beginnings of the universe (“four roots of things”). The elements are passive, everything that happens in the world is explained by the action of two forces - Love and Enmity (Hatred). Love is the cause of unity and goodness, Enmity is the cause of multiplicity and evil.

Cosmogony and cosmology. Changes in the world are the result of the eternal struggle of Love and Enmity, in which either one or the other force wins. These changes occur in four stages (Scheme 21).

Origin of the organic world. The organic world arises at the third stage of cosmogenesis and has four stages: 1) separate parts of animals arise; 2) separate parts of animals are randomly combined and both viable organisms and non-viable monsters arise; 3) viable organisms survive, non-viable monsters die (here lies the idea of ​​natural selection); 4) animals and people appear by reproduction.

Epistemology. The main principle is that like is known by like. Since man also consists of four elements, the earth in the external

the world is known thanks to the earth in the human body, water - thanks to water, etc. Sensations arise in a person due to the fact that particles separated from things penetrate into the pores of the sense organs. The main medium of perception is blood, in which all four elements are most evenly mixed.

Empedocles is a supporter of the theory of transmigration of souls.

The formation of the world proceeds in four stages.

Scheme 21. Empedocles: cosmogony

After the fourth stage, there is a return to the first, and so on. to infinity.

Zeno of Elea (Greek Ζήνων) (c. 490 BC - c. 430 BC), ancient Greek philosopher, student of Parmenides. See also Elea.

Famous for his aporias (paradoxes), proving the impossibility of movement, space and multitude. The works of Zeno have come down to us in the presentation of Aristotle and comments on him by Simplicius.

He developed the teaching of Parmenides about the one, denying the cognizability of sensual being, the plurality of things and their movement, and proving the inconceivability of the sensual...

Zeno of Elea (b. c. 490 BC), Greek philosopher and logician, chiefly famous for the paradoxes that bear his name. Little is known about Zeno's life. He was from the Greek city of Elea in southern Italy. Plato reports that Zeno was in Athens and met with Socrates.

Presumably ok. 465 BC he set forth his ideas in a book that has not come down to us. According to tradition, Zeno died fighting a tyrant (probably the ruler of Elea, Nearchus). Information about it has to be collected by ...

The Elean school is a school of ancient Greek philosophy, which got its name from the Greek city of Elea (another name is Velia) in southern Italy. The teaching of the school was based on two principles: being is one, and changes are illusory.

Xenophanes of Colophon (r. ca. 570 BC) is usually considered the founder of the school, although he was brought to full development in the 5th century. BC. Parmenides (b. c. 515 BC) and Zeno of Elea (b. c. 490 BC). Xenophanes criticized contemporary polytheism, declaring in his...

It is often believed that the purpose of sophistry is to present falsehood as truth. In fact, the sophists asserted the relativity, and even the impossibility of truth in general: only opinions exist, and the task of philosophers (and especially politicians) is to present their opinions as the truth and convince others of this.

This fundamental position of the Sophists is heard in the famous statement of Protagoras: "Man is the measure of all things", i.e. each person measures things with his own standard and thus becomes ...

Ancient Greek philosophy is a philosophy that originated in ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. e. and existed until the very end of antiquity. In terms of ideas, methods and terminology, ancient Greek philosophy includes the philosophy of the Greek (Hellenized) part of the Roman Empire, and in general most of the philosophical texts created during this period in ancient Greek.

periodization
In accordance with the accepted periodization, the history of ancient philosophy is divided into three periods:

Archaic period (until the 6th century...

Eleatics - ancient Greek philosophers, representatives of the Eleatic school (end of VI - first half of V centuries BC).

School composition
Belonging to the Eleatic school is attributed to such philosophers as Parmenides, Zeno of Elea and Melissus. Sometimes Xenophanes is also attributed to her, given some evidence that he was the teacher of Parmenides). Unlike most pre-Socratics, the Eleans did not deal with natural science, but developed a theoretical doctrine of being (for the first time, the term itself...

One of the most famous paradoxes is the aporia of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno about Achilles trying to catch up with the tortoise, which in one case is motionless, and in the other moves at a certain speed. Achilles runs at a speed of 18 km/h=5 m/s and the initial distance between the tortoise and Achilles is 5 m. Achilles, of course, will overtake the tortoise in 1 s.

But Zeno argues otherwise! Achilles runs 2.5 meters in the first half second, 1¼ meters in the next quarter of a second, and 1¼ meters in the next eighth...

Socrates had a peculiar approach to communicating with people. Socrates chose a famous politician or just a famous person, after he read his speech, and Socrates began to ask his famous questions.

Moreover, at first Socrates unrestrainedly praised his interlocutor, saying that he was such a smart, well-known person in the city, and that it would not be difficult for him to answer such an elementary question. Socrates asked his really elementary question (but only at first glance...