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Sunday, 22 May 2005

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Blar

Is that even possible? How can two clocks run out at the same instant if they're never both running at the same time?

Bill Vallicella

Good comment! Esse ad posse is a valid inference. It actually happened, so it is possible. But HOW is it possible? It is true that the clocks are never both running at the same time. So, strictly speaking, there is no instant at which both are running, and so no instant at which both run out. But that is consistent with saying that both clocks ran out at the same time t if t covers a non-instantaneous interval. The clocks both ran out at the same tenth of a second. The clocks are digital devices that digitize the temporal continuum busting it up into discrete bites. Zeno's paradox of the arrow would apply to the falling of a flag on an analog clock. My formulation was sloppy. I should have said 'same time' not 'same instant.'

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