The nature of metaphysics and Zeno's paradoxes of motion

Abstract

This thesis sets out to further the evaluation of a doctrine of the nature of metaphysics which, for its origin and general content, is called "Wisdomian". It carries out a testing examination on part of the region of metaphysics concerned with Space, Time, and Motion; namely, the history and vicissitudes of the paradoxes of Zeno. Writings on the paradoxes were chosen for the test as a well-bounded, conveniently sized, and highly characteristic field for metaphysical activity. Such an examination is, I consider, best pursued sympathetically, so in the pages that follow the "Wisdomian" doctrine is displayed as favourably as may be. Because it would be worthless unless detailed and reasonably complete, and because I wished it to have some value, in addition, as an up-to-date account of the course that thought on Zeno's paradoxes has taken, the pace of the thesis is perforce leisurely.