What about Plurality? Aristotle’s Discussion of Zeno’s Paradoxes

Abstract

While Aristotle provides the crucial testimonies for the paradoxes of motion, topos, and the falling millet seed, surprisingly he shows almost no interest in the paradoxes of plurality. For Plato, by contrast, the plurality paradoxes seem to be the central paradoxes of Zeno and Simplicius is our primary source for those. This paper investigates why the plurality paradoxes are not examined by Aristotle and argues that a close look at the context in which Aristotle discusses Zeno holds the answer to this question.

Keywords

• Aristotle
• Zeno
• Simplicius
• Plato
• plurality paradoxes
• metaphysics