Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps #2)

by Peter S. Adamson

starting with the Sorites. 1 The title comes from the Greek word soros, which means “heap.” It’s best understood as a kind of dialectical game, where I ask you whether one grain of sand constitutes a heap. Well, obviously not. How about two grains? Presumably you’ll still say that this is not a heap of sand. But I keep going: three grains? Four? How about five?…until you admit that we now have a heap. As soon as you do that, I say, “you’re telling me adding one grain of sand turns it into a heap?” It’s absurd to suppose that adding or subtracting only one grain would make a decisive difference. Yet at some point, a heap must come into existence. So where do you draw the line? A variation, which touches on a sensitive spot for me personally, asks you to imagine plucking hairs off a man’s head one at a time until he becomes bald. It’s absurd to suppose that one hair could make the difference, yet he surely becomes bald at some point. It’s a cute little