DOES NOTHING EXIST???

Hardly, since if nothing existed you could not ask the question. Therefore, since you asked the question, something exists. QED.

Hi Ken,
I left it unquoted intentionally, because I knew you were online.
This is for people who don't see it as an ambiguous question.
Thank you, and have a remarkable adventure.
Mark...

In some sense, I'd say yes. On the face I thought "No, nothing, as a thing, is not real"

But we do have empty sets and the number "zero". Or suppose the expression, after looking over your shoulder out of fear: "Shwew. There's nothing there"

There is space between objects. We could say that there is air in between the spaces, or perhaps space itself is something rather than nothing -- perhaps nothing, then, exists as an approximate model of space in the same way that love exists as an approximate model of a relationship: aesthetically.

[reaches up and feels top of head]

Oh my god! I've lost my brains again! Where'd I put them?

Or, perhaps I never had them to begin with!

What's ambiguous about it?

Hi Ken,
It can be understood to have more than one definition.
Mark...

Questions do not have definitions, but if you are saying that the question has more than one meaning, could you list those two meanings?

Hi Ken,
1) Your interpretation (does nothing exist?) Assumes that everything does not exist.
2) My interpretation (Does nothing exist) Assumes that there is potentially a place where there is nothing, such as before the big bang, at the end of time, in a part of the universe.
Thank you ken.
Mark...

I think if you adhere to cartesian dualism, then nothing exists, but considering I refute the theory in itself, I'd say things exist as they are and the state with which we exist subjectively poses certain confusions. We can prove things exist empircally, the keyboard I touch I can feel, etc. We rely on the senses we have, and you could say this is the only thing we have to prove things existing objectively. Then, you could perhaps refute that claim to an individual who has no bodily sensations at all, and say that this individual cannot affirm their existence at all, thus nothing is likely to exist objectively, other than what can be seen and heard, which in itself is kind of transparent and untrustworthy. Its hard to experience the world other than through myself subjectively, but I would say that things exist without me, and that things exist with you... I think the question just poses alot of semantic confusions, considering the word 'nothing' is associated to something so broad.

Nothing cannot exist although I pride myself on being next to nothingness.

Sorry. I don't understand 2. But if someone said that elephants don't exist, I would not understand him as meaning that there is potentially a place where there are no elephants. So, I don't think that would be a meaning of "elephants" don't exist. My own view would be that "elephants don' exist" means that it is false that something is an elephant. Mutatis Mutandis for "nothing exists".

Not next to cleanliness, which as you know, is next to godliness?

Do we have to go to nothing to know it is there, in which case it will no longer be nothing or can we extrapolate it from where we are now ? It is thought that the space in between galaxies is close to nothingness, but even out there, there would be some form of radiation. Is something that lacks mass equal to nothing ? Or does nothing mean a lack of any detectable effect ?

Nothing means nothing.

You do know that if you are defining something it is pointless to include the word being defined in the definition ?

I know nothing of the sort.

No, I am definitely settled on this matter. Nothing cannot exist, semantically or otherwise. A lack of something is still the lack thereof and therefore inherently is something. I saw a lot of posts about "empty space" but where there is space at all, that is something. Semantically, "nothing" implies a lack of something specific. There is nothing on my desk is true, only in the sense that I usually have papers on it. There is, however, air and other things bouncing along that my eyes can't see.
Perhaps that was an unnecessary answer, but my answer is no- no thing cannot exist. It's a paradox, really.

What is that something ?