Zeno of Elea

Zeno's paradoxes such as the millet seed and stadium show us the limit of our senses and that reason is something that we must all rely upon in order to know things (A29 and A28). Although troublesome at first, these paradoxes can be overcome by evaluating the assumptions that support them. One can also question the conclusions that can be appropriately attributed to them. Zeno seems to think that our senses cannot be trusted at all due to our inability to accurately measure the weight of a millet seed. However, this lack of ability does not necessarily lead to the doubting and distrust of our senses. This seems to be a bit of a leap. Instead, a more moderate conclusion would be that our senses are not acute or sensitive enough to discern certain physical attributes of nature. Our senses can still be trusted, but it depends on what case or task we are talking about. From this perspective, Zeno's paradoxes are important in showing us the limitations of our abilities. They show us the importance of reason and its crucial role in understanding the world around us. With reason we can know that the millet seed weighs something whether or not we feel that weight in our hands.

It seems to me that we need both reason and our senses collectively to make accurate decisions or observations about nature. Additionally, these paradoxes show how complex our senses are as we rely on all of them together to discern facts. Many of the paradoxes only test a single sense at a time, but in daily life many of our actions and observations are performed with all of the senses contributing something to the whole. Also, in using our senses we are using reason to evaluate and make judgments about what we sense. Therefore, to conclude that we can only trust our reason may not rule out the option of trusting the senses. I am not convinced that these paradoxes prove that I cannot trust my senses, but I do think they are important in reminding us of our limitations as human. Do you think Hume was influenced by Zeno, because his skepticism about doubting our senses and relying on reason or science are very similar?

-BaylorBear16