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Nothing 5 Years ago
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The point of nothing - to paraphrase Bertrand Russell on philosophy - is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth examining, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
What is this nothing, that we canât actually see, touch or feel? Is it absolute? Is it relative to everything else? If we are able to think about it, is it something, and if so wouldnât it not be nothing?
This is precisely the mystery of nothing â that the more we think about it, the more there is to it.
So is nothing something?
(I wasn't sure on which forum to post this, so I did so also on Puzzles and paradoxes. Apolologies.)
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Thomist
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Re: Nothing 5 Years ago
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"Nothing" does not exist. Too, we cannot conceive of "nothing." It is merely an abstract intellectual concept.
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"In the gay Christian community, it would seem, the maxim is: love the sin and love the sinner, but hate anyone who calls it a sin or him a sinner."
"Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion." -- Richard John Neuhaus, First Things
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Re: Nothing 5 Years ago
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"Nothing" does not exist. Too, we cannot conceive of "nothing." It is merely an abstract intellectual concept.
Would you say the same thing about Being?
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Nec pluribus impar.
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WttA5
Platinum Boarder
Posts: 1182
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Re: Nothing 5 Years ago
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Karma: 0
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The point of nothing - to paraphrase Bertrand Russell on philosophy - is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth examining, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
What is this nothing, that we canât actually see, touch or feel? Is it absolute? Is it relative to everything else? If we are able to think about it, is it something, and if so wouldnât it not be nothing?
This is precisely the mystery of nothing â that the more we think about it, the more there is to it.
So is nothing something?
(I wasn't sure on which forum to post this, so I did so also on Puzzles and paradoxes. Apolologies.)
This is a classic example of not understanding the logic of language, that is, not understanding how we sometimes create philosophical problems by not understanding this logic. That is not to say, that all philosophical problems fall into this category, but this particular problem is one that does. We never use the word 'nothing' to describe the absence of everything. For example, just consider how we use the word 'nothing' in our everyday speech. When someone asks, for example, "What is in your room?", and you reply 'nothing', do you literally mean the absence of everything? or if someone asks, "What is on the moon?", and you reply 'nothing', do you literally mean that there is the complete absence of everything on the moon? All one has to do is think about the use of the word 'nothing' a bit, and you can see that this is the case.
This is similar to asking if the world is an 'illusion'. Similar in the sense that one is creating a philosophical problem where there is none. There is no problem, because once one understands the logic behind the words these kinds of philosophical problems dissolve. I would suggest reading the book Sense and Sensibilia by J. L. Austin.
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\"The results of philosophy are the uncovering of one or another piece of plain nonsense and of bumps that the understanding has got by running its head up against the limits of language. These bumps make us see the value of the discovery.\"
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Thomist
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Re: Nothing 5 Years ago
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Would you say the same thing about Being?
What do you mean when you say "Being"?
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"In the gay Christian community, it would seem, the maxim is: love the sin and love the sinner, but hate anyone who calls it a sin or him a sinner."
"Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion." -- Richard John Neuhaus, First Things
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The administrator has disabled public write access.
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Re: Nothing 5 Years ago
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Karma: 0
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"Nothing" does not exist. Too, we cannot conceive of "nothing." It is merely an abstract intellectual concept.
In which way does an abstract intellectual concept not exist?
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