c. 150-c. 70 B.C.

Greek Near Eastern philosopher noted for his penetrating critique of Euclid (c. 325-c. 250 B.C.). A thinker of the Epicurean school, Zeno was predisposed against mathematics and the sciences, but unlike Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) himself, he made his attack from a position of knowledge. It was Zeno's position that geometry contained hidden assumptions, and though his work gained little attention at the time, modern scholars have tended to regard him as a brilliant critic of mathematical reasoning.