Kagaku tetsugaku
Online ISSN : 1883-6461
Print ISSN : 0289-3428
ISSN-L : 0289-3428
Why Achilles Need Not Catch the Tortoise
Takuo Aoyama
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2010 Volume 43 Issue 2 Pages 2_81-2_94

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Abstract

    Achilles need not catch the tortoise, although Achilles is faster than the tortoise. Zeno's premise does not determine whether Achilles can catch up. In this paper, I clarify this fact through a critical examination of Noya (2005), which criticizes Aoyama (2002) and Uemura (2002). Noya's solution smuggles the unnecessary premise of equal ratio to make Achilles catch up. However, his solution gives a new idea about what speed is. In the last part of this paper, I develop this idea and explain the reason why Achilles usually catches up in the actual world.

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© 2010 The Philosophy of Science Society, Japan
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