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Barbara M Sattler, VI—Paradoxes as Philosophical Method and Their Zenonian Origins, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 121, Issue 2, July 2021, Pages 153–181, https://doi.org/10.1093/arisoc/aoab003
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Abstract
In this paper I show that one of the most fruitful ways of employing paradoxes has been as a philosophical method that forces us to reconsider basic assumptions. After a brief discussion of recent understandings of the notion of paradoxes, I show that Zeno of Elea was the inventor of paradoxes in this sense, against the background of Heraclitus’ and Parmenides’ way of argumentation: in contrast to Heraclitus, Zeno’s paradoxes do not ask us to embrace a paradoxical reality; and in contrast to Parmenides, Zeno shows common assumptions to be internally problematic, not just in light of Eleatic positions.