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Plato And Aristotle On The Instant Of Change - A Dilemma, John Bowin

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

There is an ancient puzzle about motion in Plato at Parmenides 155e-157b which has been the subject of scholarship by Richard Sorabji and more recently, Nico Strobach.1 The puzzle, as Plato gives it, can be roughly summarized as follows: At every time, a given object must either be in motion or at rest; there is no third possibility. Also, an object can never be simultaneously both in motion and at rest. The only way for an object to be both in motion and at rest is for it to be in motion and at rest at different times. But how …