Can we ever touch anything?: Philosophy Forums

Can we ever touch anything?
The distance between to articles can always be halved, so can they ever touch?

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Can we ever touch anything?

Tom.
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Posted 10/06/09 - 09:01 AM: Subject: Can we ever touch anything?	#1
I am completely new to Philosophy and have never studied it (I am 15) and so I apologise for anything that demonstrates ignorance. The space between two articles that are positioned 1m apart can be halved. This would mean the distance between them is now 1/2 of the original distance. Were you to halve the space again, it would become 1/4 of the original distance. Initially, before I pose any other questions, I imagine that on this basis, no matter how small the space between the two articles gets, it can always be made smaller by half? So the space goes from being 1m, to 1/2 of a metre, 1/4 of a metre, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64 etc. If it is the case that the concept of infinity does exist, the denominator can always get bigger and thus the space can always get smaller. Therefore, if my hand is 1m from a wall, does that mean that theoretically my hand can always get closer to the wall, and thus never touch it, even when my visual and nervous senses are telling me I am touching the wall?

Warshed
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Posted 10/06/09 - 09:22 AM:	#2
That and the weak sub-atomic forces keep the sub-atomic particles from ever truly touching each other. So yes, we never truly touch anything. Also what you just stated is Xeno's paradox, and usually everyone discovers what you discovered around the age of 12, so you must be a late bloomer. Xeno himself stated it around the age of 6 right after he solved Fermat's Theorem.

rigelrover
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Posted 10/06/09 - 09:25 AM:	#3
Is that Xena's brother?
I am more interested in questions than answers; dialog than dictation. If we can reasonably believe that there is not just a breach, but a fundamentally unclosable gap between the individual mind and the ultimate nature of the reality; the primordial thing in itself, then 'true' mystery does exist.

Warshed
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Posted 10/06/09 - 09:32 AM:	#4
No its Xena's son. I think Zeus knocked her up, but instead of getting superhuman strength, Xeno got superhuman intelligence.

Tom.
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Posted 10/06/09 - 11:11 AM:	#5
Thanks very much. Does that mean that between the atoms, 'nothing' exists? And I don't know what 12 year olds you've been talking to! =P

NothingtoSay
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Posted 10/06/09 - 12:12 PM:	#6
Warshed wrote: That and the weak sub-atomic forces keep the sub-atomic particles from ever truly touching each other. So yes, we never truly touch anything. Also what you just stated is Xeno's paradox, and usually everyone discovers what you discovered around the age of 12, so you must be a late bloomer. Xeno himself stated it around the age of 6 right after he solved Fermat's Theorem. 12-year-olds usually find the fact that we have to go half the distance "infinitely" (in a sense, at least) many times before we reach our intended destination makes it impossible for us to reach that destination? I must be a very late bloomer, then...

Cadrache
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Posted 10/06/09 - 12:24 PM:	#7
yawn It mostly depends on who you talk to. It's completely independant then attempting to find your car keys.
"...There was a writer who asked why it was that when we find positive experiences we say that only the physical facts are real, but in negative experiences we believe that reality is subjective. He made an example of those who say that in birth only the pain is real, the joy a subjective point of view, but that in death it is the emotional loss that is the reality." - Tony Ballantyne, Recursion. _____________________________________________ Truth is want. - The internal state of matters. Truth is Need. - The external state of affairs.

NothingtoSay
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Posted 10/06/09 - 01:27 PM:	#8
Cadrache wrote: yawn It mostly depends on who you talk to. It's completely independant then attempting to find your car keys. I don't think I understand Zeno's argument. Was movement an illusion to Zeno? Because if it was, I'd say that he'd agree that he experiences things "moving," that he experiences fake changes of place; that he experiences completed differences (as in, a hand "moving" from A to B, and completing that change of place). How does Zeno explain this illusion of motion? What does he say about his senses? How does he explain his thinking of that idea if nothing changed (his mind, his body, his surroundings) some way or the other? Edited by NothingtoSay on 10/06/09 - 01:36 PM

Warshed
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Posted 10/06/09 - 01:34 PM:	#9
I think Zeno, Hericlitus, and Perminides were all in the same boat as trying to show that things aren't as they seem. Obviously Zeno saw that movement happened all around us.

Cadrache
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Posted 10/06/09 - 01:35 PM:	#10
I don't know how Zeno thought. Only some of what he supposedly wrote down. At any time, you can find your car keys. Zeno's paradox however requires you first to understand divisional relationships.(for instance) People will not neccessarily find Zeno's paradox until they first find something else.
"...There was a writer who asked why it was that when we find positive experiences we say that only the physical facts are real, but in negative experiences we believe that reality is subjective. He made an example of those who say that in birth only the pain is real, the joy a subjective point of view, but that in death it is the emotional loss that is the reality." - Tony Ballantyne, Recursion. _____________________________________________ Truth is want. - The internal state of matters. Truth is Need. - The external state of affairs.

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