Achilles argument
Achilles argument
Zeno of Elea used a reductio ad absurdum argument against the possibility of motion. He urged that if we assume it possible we are led to the absurdity that Achilles, the fastest runner in Greece, could not catch a proverbially slow tortoise. The alleged grounds for this are that during the time, t1 – t2, which it takes Achilles to traverse the distance between his position and that of the tortoise at time t1, the latter even at his slow rate of speed would have moved on a finite distance farther. — C.A.B.
Cf. B. Russell, Scientific Method in Philosophy; Lewis Carroll, “Achilles and the Tortoise,” Mind.