Paradox

SISYPHUS’S ROCK AND ZENO’S PARADOXES 53Zeno asks whether a single millet seed makes a sound whenit falls. Protagoras answers no. Zeno continues: A bushel ofmillet does make a sound when it falls. A single millet seedmakes up some fraction of the bushel. Therefore, the milletseed must make a little noise when it falls. For the sound ofthe bushel is just a composite of the sounds of the seeds thatconstitute it. Thus, our senses falsely indicate that the milletseed makes no sound.This just seems like the fallacy of composition. The factthat the parts lack a property (audibility) does not imply thatwhole lacks the property.To save Zeno from triviality, some suggest that the milletseed is a rudimentary version of the paradox of the heap. Theunderlying argument would then be a slippery slope: The fallof one seed does not make a sound. If n seeds do not make asound, then n + 1 seeds do not make a sound. Therefore, abushel of seed does not make a sound.If the millet seed counts as rudimentary sorites, thenwhat about Democritus’s (ca. 460–ca. 370 B.C.) dilemmaabout cones?If a cone were cut by a plane parallel to the base [bywhich is clearly meant a plane indefinitely near to thebase], what must we think of the surfaces forming thesections? Are they equal or unequal? For, if they areunequal, they will make the cone irregular as havingmany indentations, like steps, and unevenessess; but, ifthey are equal, the sections will be equal, and the conewill appear to have the property of the cylinder and tobe made of equal, not unequal, circles, which is veryabsurd.(Plutarch 1921, 179–80)