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Motion in Crisis: Why the Analytic Principles of Thought Destroy Motion and Life in the Cosmos

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Phenomenology of Space and Time

Part of the book series: Analecta Husserliana ((ANHU,volume 116))

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Abstract

By motion in crisis we mean the interruption of motion—that motion is logically impossible or unintelligible because it defies our analytic principles of thought. Motion in crisis originates therefore with the Greek philosopher Zeno (fifth century BCE) who attacked the thesis that there is motion in the universe by deriving contradictory consequences from it. Because life is something kinetic—as a matter of fact life is the power of self-motion—Zeno’s attack of motion is essentialy an attack of life within the cosmos. We will show in this paper why our analytic principles of thought are incapable of comprehending motion and life, which means that if we live and move, it is precisely because we do not function according to the analytic principles of our Euclidean individual senses that underlie empirical science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Aristotle, Physique VIII, trans. Henri Carteron (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986), 263 a4 − 11.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., 263 b3–9.

  3. 3.

    See A.N. Whitehead, Process and Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1978), Part II, Chap. II The Extensive Continuum, 69.

  4. 4.

    The analytic principle of inequality and temporal order states that different things are unequal and consecutive. Thus: If a ≠ b, then either a < b or b < a.

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Correspondence to Ion Soteropoulos .

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Soteropoulos, I. (2014). Motion in Crisis: Why the Analytic Principles of Thought Destroy Motion and Life in the Cosmos. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Phenomenology of Space and Time. Analecta Husserliana, vol 116. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02015-0_28

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