THE DIALECTICS OF ZENO'S DENIAL OF CHANGE AND ITS COMPATIBILITY WITH AN AFRICAN (ANNAN) THOUGHT SYSTEM

Abstract

Abstract & inametiudo@aksu.edu.ng inamsifon2004@yahoo.com Phone No. 08069007369 The focus of this paper is to examine Zeno's denial of change in reality and its compatibility with Annan thought system. This will be done using myth being one of Africa's epistemological tools. Zeno in a bit to defend his master Parmenides against Heraclitus and Pythagoras credos on the possibility of motion/change upheld the thesis of motionless reality through his paradoxes some of which include; the paradoxes of dichotomy, Achilles and the tortoise, the flying arrow and the stadium among others. What was Zeno and by extension the Eleatic Philosophers understanding of change to warrant such conclusion? Can his denial of change/motion be found in African cultures especially Annan thought system? How can we reconcile his thesis with the common sense experience of reality characterized by motion/change? An attempt to address these questionsmakes this study relevant to scholarship as it intends to further debunk some Western scholar's conception that there is no Africans philosophy. The paper employs expository, library research and analytic methods of discourse. In its analysis of Zeno's understanding of change as an illusion, the paper argues that his position though contrary to common sense experience is not peculiar to the West, but also evident in Annan thought system as epitomized in some of their proverbs/wise sayings. The paper mentions such proverbs as“ekpuho se ekpuhoagwoikpuhokemfi, “AgwoisibenneitieakpaninnoUdo” “Agwoisinuke Alana eched” “Akpoisikpahakeetokilung yak ebenekaaekaillungekebuk” etc as some of the epistemological tools through whichAnnandemonstrate their denial of change in line with Zeno's thought.