relativity – The History and Philosophy of Physics Podcast

Episode 8: To Infinity and Absurdity

This episode is on Zeno of Elea (born c. 490 BCE) – student of Parmenides, namesake of the quantum Zeno effect, and originator of some puzzling paradoxes. I’ll focus on Zeno’s arguments against plurality and his paradoxes of motion as recorded by Simplicius and Aristotle. You can listen to the episode here.

Episode 7: He Never Changes His Mind

This episode focuses primarily on Parmenides (6th – mid-5th century BCE), the “Father of Metaphysics”. He believed that a lot of what we see and believe in (concepts such as creation and movement) are actually an illusion and that reality is unchanging. I’ll discuss Parmenides’s theory, argument, and influence and take some side-trips into theContinue reading “Episode 7: He Never Changes His Mind”