Shadee

You don't split the difference in half, you split the distance he has to travel in half and you keep doing that. So using your distance, to travel 11.1 m he first has to pass the halfway point at some point which is 5.55 m, but to travel 5.55 m he fist has to pass the halfway point of that which is 2.775 m but to travel 2.775 m he first has to pass the halfway point of that distance at some point which is 1.3875 m... see where I'm going with this? It goes on forever when you realize that every number except 0 can be divided into new numbers endlessly.

Whether or not he catches up with the turtle isn't what the paradox was about. He's explained the paradox in a different scenario too where there's no race involved but just a frog on one side of a pond which has to cross the pond by jumping from one lilly pad to the next. Between each lilly pad there's another lilly pad right inbetween the two (also between the first one and the one that's between the first and second one etc etc). The question in this case is will the frog ever make it to the other side of the pond. Which of course is no because in that scenario there's an infinite number of lillypads just like the infinite number of halfway points Achilles has to traverse in theory.

romansh

Hi Shadee

Sorry I misread your post.... This is not how I understand Zenon's paradox .... it's actually where you get close to the turtle but never reach. It's the sum of half of the differences. The reply below answers my understanding of Zenon's paradox

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There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

Shadee

I guess we both just have a different way of looking at the paradox.
Since he's put it in so many different scenarios I just look past the puzzles themselves and am just intrigued at finding out that there are endless halfway points to any destination and if you think of it that way then in math you can really never get to any destination because you'd have to cross an infinite number of halfway points. And that's what I believe he meant to achieve. The way I look at it is, the puzzles are pillows, and the fact that numbers are endless in math but that that doesn't seem to be the way things work in real life is a box with an engagement ring which he's put under one of the pillows. He basically asks people which pillow is fluffier. A lot of people get so preoccupied with figuring out which pillow is fluffier that they don't realize that he doesn't care, he just wanted you to find the engagement ring and be amazed

romansh

Og ....

just a quick question
in debates here
quite often our perception of things is decribed as illusory.

I find my thought patterns baulking at this.

Would arbitary be a better description?

__________________
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

Og

Hrm.. Don't confuse illusion with delusion. Illusion just means that something is different than it seems. Delusion means that that something doesn't exist that you think does.

Does that make sense?

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Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

romansh

thanks ....
You referring to cats rocks and sledgehammers as illusory got me thinking about the debate I'm having Nick Treklis. I think he is coming from a very similar point of view as you.

I don't have a problem with "boundary" approach to existence (or lack of).
It leads to some enlightening ways of life.

I'm still having a problem considering the cat as illusory. I understand that the cat, I and everything are interdependent in ways I can only begin to understand.

oh well I'll keep working on it

thanks again

__________________
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

Og

Cat is not an illusion. Cat as intrinsic entity is illusion. Anything as intrinsic individual (i.e. soul) is illusion. Cat and rock are real things. But they are NOT independent entities. It's like saying "hand" or "foot" or "eyes." These are not intrinsic entities... They are parts of a whole.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

romansh

I think I know what you mean... I remember as a kid collecting coins. And books describing coins having a intrinsic beauty or value. Never could reconcile the meaning of intrinsic in these examples.

thanks ... catch you again sometime

__________________
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams