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Full Idea
If there is a place it will be in something, because everything that exists is in something. But what is in something is in a place. Therefore the place will be in a place, and so on ad infinitum. Therefore, there is no such thing as place.
Gist of Idea
If everything is in a place, what is the place in? Place doesn't exist
Source
report of Zeno (Elea) (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE], B3) by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 9.562.3
Book Ref
'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.79
| 1511 | If everything is in a place, what is the place in? Place doesn't exist [Zeno of Elea, by Simplicius] |
| 5098 | Place is not shape, or matter, or extension between limits; it is the limits of a body [Aristotle] |
| 15980 | We can locate the parts of the universe, but not the whole thing [Locke] |
| 12952 | Space is an order among actual and possible things [Leibniz] |
| 18219 | Relational space is problematic if you take the idea of a field seriously [Field,H] |
| 22928 | For relationists moving an object beyond the edge of space creates new space [Le Poidevin] |
| 4228 | If space is entirely relational, what makes a boundary, or a place unoccupied by physical objects? [Lowe] |
| 21190 | 'Space' in physics just means location [Hesketh] |