A Quantum Argument Against Zeno's Paradox of Dichotomy

A Quantum Argument Against Zeno's Paradox of Dichotomy

Alvin Sherman Library

During the pre-Socratic period, Parmenides created his radical idea of an eternal, unchanging, and motionless world. This was met with much doubt, contempt, and counterarguments that sought to disprove his statements claiming that the concept of past and future were false, and that both change and movement were impossible. Yet his student, Zeno, came after him and sought to further prove his teacher Parmenides' arguments, creating what are now talked about thousands of years later known as Zeno's paradoxes. This paper will specifically talk about Zeno's dichotomy paradox, claiming that movement cannot exist due to the inherent need to be capable of traversing between a theoretically infinite series of midpoints in order to reach one's destination. The infinite series of points can be overcome with the use of atomist theory to break it down into finite, indivisible points. However, the question then becomes how exactly do we move from one finite point to another? This issue can be addressed using superposition principle, a quantum theory that requires an object to be observed in order for its state to be known, and Planck time, the current smallest measurement of time. Yet even with Planck time being an incredibly small unit of time, our observation is still limited. By understanding movement as a phenomenon that occurs between these lapses of observation, the quantum particles that are resting in superposition are capable of moving from one finite point to another.