Eubulides
Eubulides | |
|---|---|
| Εὐβουλίδης | |
 | |
| Born | fl. 4th Century BCE |
| Era | Ancient philosophy |
| Region | Ancient Greek philosophy |
| School | Megarian school |
| Notable students | Demosthenes Apollonius Cronus Euphantus Alexinus |
Main interests | Paradoxes |
Notable ideas | Liar paradox Sorites paradox |
Eubulides(Greek:Εὑβουλίδης;fl. 4th century BCE) ofMiletuswas aphilosopherof theMegarian schoolwho is famous for hisparadoxes.
Life
[edit]According toDiogenes Laërtius,Eubulides was a pupil ofEuclid of Megara,[1]the founder of theMegarian school.He was a contemporary ofAristotle,against whom he wrote with great bitterness.[2][3]He taught logic toDemosthenes,[4]and he is also said to have taughtApollonius Cronus,the teacher ofDiodorus Cronus,and the historianEuphantus.[5][6]
Paradoxes of Eubulides
[edit]Eubulides is most famous for inventing the forms of seven famousparadoxes,[1]some of which, however, are also ascribed toDiodorus Cronus:[7]
- The Liar (pseudomenos) paradox:
A man says: "What I am saying now is alie."If the statement is true, then he is lying, even though the statement is true. If the statement is a lie, then he is not actually lying, even though the statement is a lie. Thus, if the speaker is lying, he tells the truth, and vice versa. - The Masked Man (enkekalymmenos) paradox:
"Do you know this masked man?" "No." "But he is your father. So – do you not know your own father?" - The Electra (Elektra) paradox:
Electradoesn't know that the man approaching her is her brother,Orestes.Electra knows her brother. Does Electra know the man who is approaching? - The Overlooked Man (dialanthanôn) paradox:
Alpha ignored the man approaching him and treated him as a stranger. The man was his father. Did Alpha ignore his own father and treat him as a stranger? - The Heap (sôritês) paradox:
A single grain of sand is certainly not a heap. Nor is the addition of a single grain of sand enough to transform a non-heap into a heap: when we have a collection of grains of sand that is not a heap, then adding but one single grain will not create a heap. And yet we know that at some point we will have a heap. - The Bald Man (phalakros) paradox:
A man with a full head of hair is obviously not bald. Now the removal of a single hair will not turn a non-bald man into a bald one. And yet it is obvious that a continuation of that process must eventually result in baldness. - The Horns (keratinês) paradox:
What you have not lost, you have. But you have not lost horns. Therefore, you have horns.
The first paradox (the Liar) is probably the most famous, and is similar to the famous paradox ofEpimenides the Cretan.The second, third and fourth paradoxes are variants of a single paradox and relate to the problem of what it means to "know" something and the identity of objects involved in an affirmation (compare themasked-man fallacy). The fifth and sixth paradoxes are also a single paradox and is usually thought to relate to the vagueness of language.[8]The final paradox, the horns, is a paradox related topresupposition.[9]
Legacy
[edit]These paradoxes were very well known in ancient times, some are alluded to by Eubulides' contemporaryAristotle[10]and even partially byPlato.[11][6]Chrysippus,theStoicphilosopher wrote about the paradoxes developed by Eubulides and characterized the Horns paradox as an intractable problem (aporoi logoi).[9]Aulus Gelliusmentions how the discussion of such paradoxes was considered (for him) after-dinner entertainment at theSaturnalia,[12]butSeneca,on the other hand, considered them a waste of time: "Not to know them does no harm, and mastering them does no good."[13]
Notes
[edit]- ^abLaërtius 1925,108.
- ^Laërtius 1925,109.
- ^Athenaeus, viii, 50 354c; Aristocles, in EusebiusPraeparatio Evangelicaxv. 2
- ^Plutarch,Vit. X Orat.;Apuleius,Orat. de Mag.;Photius,Bibliotheca,265
- ^Laërtius 1925,110.
- ^abSmith 1870.
- ^Laërtius 1925,111.
- ^Hyde 2018.
- ^abBobzien 2012,p. 166.
- ^Aristotle,Sophistici Elenchi,24, 25, 22.
- ^Plato,Euthydemus,Theaetetus.
- ^Aulus Gellius, xviii. 2. 9.
- ^Seneca,Epistles,45. 8.
Ancient primary sources
[edit]
Laërtius, Diogenes(1925)..Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.Vol. 1:2. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 108-111.
References
[edit]- Bobzien, Susanne (2011)."Dialectical School".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Bobzien, Susanne (5 April 2012)."How to give someone Horns: Paradoxes of Presupposition in Antiquity"(PDF).History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis.15(1): 159–184.doi:10.30965/26664275-01501007.Retrieved23 June2023.
- Bobzien, Susanne (2020)."Ancient Logic".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Cantini, Andrea; Bruni, Riccardo (2021)."Paradoxes and Contemporary Logic".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Hyde, Dominic (2018)."Sorites Paradox".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Rescher,N. (2001)Paradoxes: Their Roots, Range, and Resolution.Open Court Publishing.
- Seuren, P. A. M. (2005)Eubulides as a 20th-century semanticist.Language Sciences, 27(1), 75-95.
Smith, William,ed. (1870)."Eubilides".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.- Wheeler, S. C. (1983)Megarian Paradoxes as Eleatic Arguments,American Philosophical Quarterly, 20 (3), 287-295.
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