Category: Nothingness
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Why Do Some Physicists Talk Nonsense about Nothing?
Wherein I shovel some (un?)seriously scientistic caca into the sewer of nada.
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On Reconciling Creatio Ex Nihilo with Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit
Top o' the Stack. This entry examines Richard C. Potter's solution to the problem of reconciling creatio ex nihilo with ex nihilo nihil fit in his valuable article, "How To Create a Physical Universe Ex Nihilo," Faith and Philosophy, vol. 3, no. 1, (January 1986), pp. 16-26. (Potter appears to have dropped out of sight, philosophically speaking. PhilPapers shows only three articles by him,…
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Could there have been nothing at all?
I am of two minds. Substack latest.
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Holes, Hosts, and Guests
Some of you are confusing holes with 'guests.' You have to be able distinguish them on the notional or intensional plane to be able to identify them on the real or extensional plane should you find reasons to do so. I gave the example of a piece of Swiss cheese. It has holes in it.…
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Lukáš Novák on Reference to What is Not
What follows is a re-do of an entry that first saw the light of the blogosphere on the 4th of July, 2014. The draft Lukáš Novák (on my left in the photo) sent me back then for my comments has since appeared in print in Maimonides on God and Duns Scotus on Logic and Metaphysics …
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The Strange Thought of Absolute Nothingness
I had the giddy thought of absolute nothingness as a boy; the old man I've become can't quite recapture in full its eldritch quality. But he can rigorously think what the boy could mainly only feel. The boy reasoned that if God hadn't created anything, then only God would exist. But suppose no God either!…
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Something about Nothing
Consider the following contradictory propositions: 1) Something exists. 2) Nothing exists. (1) is plainly true. It follows that (2) is false. So much for truth value. What about modal status? Is (1) contingent or necessary? If (1) is contingent, then its negation is possible, in which case it is possible that (2) be true. If…
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Once More on Becoming Past and Becoming Nothing
I maintain that in the following conditional, the consequent (2) does not follow from the antecedent (1). (*) If (1) X ceases to be temporally present by becoming wholly past, then (2) X ceases to exist. The Londoner replies You claim that the truth of the antecedent (1) is consistent with the falsity of the…
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Becoming Past and Becoming Nothing
Londoner in Lockdown writes, I am still puzzling about the connection between your (1) X ceases to be temporally present by becoming wholly past. and (2) X ceases to exist. I think I understand (2). It means that there was once such a thing as X, but there is no longer such a thing as…
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Of E-Mail and Doing Nothing
I do appreciate e-mail, and I consider it rude not to respond; but lack of time and energy in synergy with congenital inefficiency conspire to make it difficult for me to answer everything. I am also temperamentally disinclined to acquiesce in mindless American hyper-kineticism, in accordance with the Italian saying: Dolce far niente Sweet to…
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A New and Improved Argument for the Necessity of Something
Previous versions were long-winded. Herewith, an approach to the lapidary. 1) If nothing exists, then something exists. 2) If something exists, then something exists.3) Either nothing exists or something exists. Therefore4) Necessarily, something exists. The argument is valid. The second two premises are tautologies. The conclusion is interesting, to put it mildly: it is equivalent…
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If Nothing Exists, is it True that Nothing Exists? Well Yes, but Then . . .
Here is a puzzle for London Ed and anyone else who finds it interesting. It is very simple, an aporetic dyad. To warm up, note that if snow is white, then it is true that snow is white. This seems quite unexceptionable, a nice, solid, datanic starting point. It generalizes, of course: for any proposition…
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The Two Opposites of ‘Nothing’ and the Logical Irreducibility of Being (2018 Version)
This entry is part of the ongoing debate with the Opponent a. k. a. the Dark Ostrich. It is interesting that 'nothing' has two opposites. One is 'something.' Call it the logical opposite. The other is 'being.' Call it the ontological opposite. Logically, 'nothing' and 'something' are interdefinable quantifiers: D1. Nothing is F =df it is not the case that something is…
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Wonder and Nonentity
George MacDonald: An Anthology, ed. C. S. Lewis, Macmillan 1960, #169: We must not wonder things away into nonentity. An occupational hazard of a certain sort of philosopher. My haiku commentary on MacDonald's epigram: Beginning in wonderWisdom runs the riskOf ending in das Nichts.
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Seriousness as Camouflage of Nullity
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, Harper, 1955, p. 61, #93: The fact of death and nothingness at the end is a certitude unsurpassed by any absolute truth ever discovered. Yet knowing this, people can be deadly serious about their prospects, grievances, duties and trespassings. The only explanation which suggests itself is that seriousness…