38 SCIENCE IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 



Anaximander, complemented by that of Pythagoras. 

 He also sets forth ideas on physiological subjects in 

 accord with the medical science of his time. By plac- 

 ing in opposition the immovable and indivisible Being, 

 and the sensible phenomena which move and divide, 

 Parmenides raised a problem which up to modern times 

 has been a stumbling block to philosophical reflection : 

 what relation is there between the movement of an 

 object and the immovable portion of space in which 

 this movement takes place ? 



This problem was clearly defined by a disciple of 

 Parmenides named Zeno. Twenty-five years younger 

 than his master, Zeno also dwelt at Elea where he was 

 born in 489 B.C. ; he took an important part in the 

 direction of public affairs and meanwhile made a 

 journey to Athens, which was recorded by Plato. 

 According to tradition, Zeno was put to torture for 

 having conspired against a personage who tyrannized 

 over the town of Elea, and, rather than denounce his 

 fellow conspirators, he cut out his tongue. Tradition 

 also attributes to him several works : An Interpretation 

 of Empedocles ; Against Philosophers ; The Disputa- 

 tions ; Treatise on Nature. Because of the systematic 

 manner in which he exposed and criticized the opinions 

 of his adversaries, he was called by Aristotle the father 

 of dialectic. (Diog. Laert., IX, 25). 



As to his celebrated arguments, some have been 

 preserved to us by Simplicius x and others by Aristotle 

 (Phys. VI ; 239 b, 9-33). The former treat of the 

 relation of unity and plurality ; the latter of the 

 problem of motion. What was the exact meaning of 

 these terms in the doctrine of Zeno ? Did he, by their 

 exposition, attempt to demonstrate the impossibility 

 of motion and of plurality ? Or did he simply desire to 



1 Ritter and Preller, Historia philosophiae graecae, 9th 

 edition, Gotha, 1913, 131-4. 



