{"id":3119,"date":"2020-05-30T17:26:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T17:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/30\/more-about-nothing\/"},"modified":"2020-05-30T17:26:59","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T17:26:59","slug":"more-about-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/30\/more-about-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Something about Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consider the following contradictory propositions:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1) Something exists.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Nothing exists.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(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 (1) is necessary, then it is not possible that (2) be true.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it possible that nothing exist?   Is it possible that there be<\/em> nothing at all?  Arguably not, since if there were<\/em> nothing at all, that would be<\/em> the case: that would be<\/em> that obtaining state of affairs, in which case there would be<\/em> one 'thing,' namely, that state of affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, it is impossible that there be nothing at all. It follows that it is necessary that something (at least one thing) exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

A strict Pyrrhonian would have to say that there is an argument that cancels out the one just given.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Something about Nothing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-skepticism","category-aporetics","category-nothingness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}