Editing Zeno's paradoxes (section)

== History ==
The origins of the paradoxes are somewhat unclear, but they are generally thought to have been developed to support [[Parmenides]]' doctrine of [[monism]], that all of reality is one, and that ''all change is impossible'', that is, that nothing ever [[Motion|changes in location]] or in any other respect.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> [[Diogenes Laërtius]], citing [[Favorinus]], says that Zeno's teacher Parmenides was the first to introduce the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. But in a later passage, Laërtius attributes the origin of the paradox to Zeno, explaining that Favorinus disagrees.<ref>Diogenes Laërtius, ''Lives'', 9.23 and 9.29.</ref> [[University|Modern academics]] attribute the paradox to Zeno.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> 

Many of these paradoxes argue that contrary to the evidence of one's senses, [[motion (physics)|motion]] is nothing but an [[illusion]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In [[Plato|Plato's]] [[Parmenides (dialogue)|''Parmenides'']] (128a–d), Zeno is characterized as taking on the project of creating these [[paradoxes]] because other philosophers claimed paradoxes arise when considering Parmenides' view. Zeno's arguments may then be early examples of a method of proof called ''[[reductio ad absurdum]]'', also known as [[proof by contradiction]]. Thus Plato has Zeno say the purpose of the paradoxes "is to show that their hypothesis that existences are many, if properly followed up, leads to still more absurd results than the hypothesis that they are one."<ref>''Parmenides'' 128d</ref> Plato has [[Socrates]] claim that Zeno and Parmenides were essentially arguing exactly the same point.<ref>''Parmenides'' 128a–b</ref> They are also credited as a source of the [[dialectic]] method used by Socrates.<ref>([fragment 65], Diogenes Laërtius. [http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlzeno-eleatic.htm IX] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212095647/http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlzeno-eleatic.htm |date=2010-12-12 }} 25ff and VIII 57).</ref>