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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Zeno of Elea

c. 495 BCE – c. 430 BCE

Pre-SocraticEleatic

Born Elea

Achilles can never catch the tortoise. Motion is impossible. He invented the paradox as a philosophical weapon.

Aristotle

384 BCE – 322 BCE

ClassicalPeripatetic

Born Stagira

He classified the world. Logic, biology, ethics, politics; he gave each its language.

Connection

Zeno of Elea paradoxes answered in the Physics Aristotle — Aristotle took Zeno's paradoxes seriously enough to answer them at length in the Physics, and his distinction between actual and potential infinity was shaped by the effort.

Shared Ideas

Reason Being

Ideas

Being Reason

Virtue Reason Happiness Moderation Nature Logos Justice Being Change On Anger Ockham's Razor

Words

“If everything that exists has a place, place too will have a place, and so on to infinity.”
— Zeno of Elea

“Before the arrow reaches its target, it must first reach the halfway point. But before that, the quarter. There is no first step — and so motion cannot begin.”
— Zeno of Elea

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
— Aristotle

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
— Aristotle

Key Moments

c. 495 BCE

Born in Elea

c. 475 BCE

Studies under Parmenides

c. 460 BCE

The Paradoxes

c. 460 BCE

Devises the paradoxes of motion

384 BCE

Born in Stagira

c. 367 BCE

Joining the Academy

343 BCE

Tutor to Alexander

335 BCE

Founding of the Lyceum

Works

The Paradoxes

Nicomachean Ethics

Metaphysics

Politics

Poetics

Explore

Compare

Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Zeno of Elea

c. 495 BCE – c. 430 BCE

Pre-SocraticEleatic

Born Elea

Achilles can never catch the tortoise. Motion is impossible. He invented the paradox as a philosophical weapon.

Aristotle

384 BCE – 322 BCE

ClassicalPeripatetic

Born Stagira

He classified the world. Logic, biology, ethics, politics; he gave each its language.

Connection

Shared Ideas

Reason Being

Ideas

Being Reason

Virtue Reason Happiness Moderation Nature Logos Justice Being Change On Anger Ockham's Razor

Words

“If everything that exists has a place, place too will have a place, and so on to infinity.”
— Zeno of Elea

“Before the arrow reaches its target, it must first reach the halfway point. But before that, the quarter. There is no first step — and so motion cannot begin.”
— Zeno of Elea

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
— Aristotle

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
— Aristotle

Key Moments

c. 495 BCE

Born in Elea

c. 475 BCE

Studies under Parmenides

c. 460 BCE

The Paradoxes

c. 460 BCE

Devises the paradoxes of motion

384 BCE

Born in Stagira

c. 367 BCE

Joining the Academy

343 BCE

Tutor to Alexander

335 BCE

Founding of the Lyceum

Works

The Paradoxes

Nicomachean Ethics

Metaphysics

Politics

Poetics