DOES NOTHING EXIST???

@Fil Albuquerque,

I would go further, I usually go, and dare with my healthy insanity, that the modern problem is to not be able to distinguish words from things this days...

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@GoshisDead,

I disagree also. 'being' and 'non-being' are opposites.
'Something' implies 'being' - 'Nothing' implies ' not being'.

And this is in any language, Even Klingon.

Mark...

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@mark noble,

And - How can nothing possibly exist? Only something can exist.
If nothing exists, I couldn't be here and neither could anyone (New Thread) or anything.

Just thinking about it proves it to be correct.

Mark...

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@mark noble,

Not everything has an opposite. Is the opposite of cat not cat? or the opposite of light, not light? the opposite of north, not north?

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@mark noble,

mark noble wrote:

I disagree also. 'being' and 'non-being' are opposites.
'Something' implies 'being' - 'Nothing' implies ' not being'.

And this is in any language, Even Klingon.

Mark...

Being and Nonbeing are opposite, but opposite whats?

You could say a thing partakes of Being. It exists

Another thing partakes of Nonbeing. It doesn't.

So no, Something doesn't imply Being. Something can either be or not be.

Gosh, isn't the opposite of cat... not-cat? Considering the nature of the Not-cat puts an interesting spin on what a Cat actually is. It's not fur and fangs. It's an idea.

1 Reply

@Arjuna,

I was just drawing attention to the tendency to create false categories. Anything can be categorized into two categories. X and not-X. But that doesn't mean they are opposites. An opposite has opposing attributes. Not everything has opposing attributes. Opposites are normally along a spectrum. Light and dark opossing ends of a spectrum. North and South opposing ends of a spectrum. Even cat and dog, albeit the spectrum is more of a culturally accepted and created spectrum. A binary category cannot have an opposite as there is no spectrum on which the two items can be on opposite ends. Abscence of attributes does not an opposite make.

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@GoshisDead,

GoshisDead wrote:

A binary category cannot have an opposite as there is no spectrum on which the two items can be on opposite ends. Abscence of attributes does not an opposite make.

Interesting. You're saying that there has to be a middle ground in order for an opposition to exist. So negative and opposite have different meanings.

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@Arjuna,

In general yes

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@GoshisDead,

I actually agree with you on this one but that does n´t change a thing on what I said...actually I suggested just the same when I said that negation of being is a false negation, a projection...

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@Fil Albuquerque,

True, it doesn't. You have managed to say that things mean things, which I don't disagree with.

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@GoshisDead,

GoshisDead wrote:

Not everything has an opposite. Is the opposite of cat not cat? or the opposite of light, not light? the opposite of north, not north?

Essentially, the opposite of North is not north, and also not South, since the earth being spherical has all possible lines away from the North following all possible directions, all different, and all leading eventually to the South and southern limit, and back again to the north.... Of physical things, objects, not being is the opposite of being...
You might consider opposite as a direction rather than a location... Not all opposites are antipods, but the further off from England, the nearer is to France..

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@GoshisDead,

The opposite of cat? What are you talking about.

Will you go to any lengths to substantiate your claim that Nothing exists?

Mark...

1 Reply

The opposite of 'No Thing' (nothing), is 'everything'.

How can 'No Thing' Exist? sorry to drift back to the bloody thread, but...I want to.

Cheese doesn't have an opposite either, nor Philadelphia, emu, paper, or any damn noun or derivitive thereof.

I have enjoyed a very old bottle of merlot tonight, so forgive me for my blatancy.

Nothing has an opposite - And that's a fact.

Ha ha!

mark...

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@mark noble,

Well Mark, my friend, we can say that Nothing out of non existing cannot be an opposite to everything...

Everything like an Absolute has no opposing forces...is just there.

Nothing is used as a concealed abstraction which always inevitably refers to something in common use, something that is not to be known or specified.

Nothing really NOTHING does n´t even fill the purpose of opposing whatever...

Cheers !

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@mark noble,

mark noble wrote:

The opposite of 'No Thing' (nothing), is 'everything'.

How can 'No Thing' Exist? sorry to drift back to the bloody thread, but...I want to.

Cheese doesn't have an opposite either, nor Philadelphia, emu, paper, or any damn noun or derivitive thereof.

I have enjoyed a very old bottle of merlot tonight, so forgive me for my blatancy.

Nothing has an opposite - And that's a fact.

Ha ha!

mark...

Nothing exists within a context of something, and everything... Space, the vacuum, our general idea of nothing would be without meaning -without us... The only something that has meaning to us cannot be described as a thing at all, but is our individual lives... The only nothing we care about is the nothing everything will become with death, which we cannot comprehend, and yet try to understand...

1 Reply

Since the manifested universe and all its parts are a "thing" it is not possible for "no thing" to exist within the universe. However, since the manifested universe is only one aspect of reality it is possible for "no thing" to exist elsewhere . For example, circle does not exist in the universe, although there are some pretty close approximations, but the idea of circle is immutable. Circle only exists in the Mind but when we experience a manifested object that is similar we call it circle. Same with "no thing." "No thing" only exists in the mind, and yet, when we experience "some thing" similar, we call it "nothing."

Now, when we realize that the universe and all its part are merely aspects of created imagination and not substantial in any way, then the concept of "no thing" becomes more concrete. Since all things are illusionary, no things can be real. Therefore, "no thing" is real.

You gotta love the divine paradox.

1 Reply

@trismegisto,

trismegisto wrote:

Since the manifested universe and all its parts are a "thing" it is not possible for "no thing" to exist within the universe. However, since the manifested universe is only one aspect of reality it is possible for "no thing" to exist elsewhere . For example, circle does not exist in the universe, although there are some pretty close approximations, but the idea of circle is immutable. Circle only exists in the Mind but when we experience a manifested object that is similar we call it circle. Same with "no thing." "No thing" only exists in the mind, and yet, when we experience "some thing" similar, we call it "nothing."

Now, when we realize that the universe and all its part are merely aspects of created imagination and not substantial in any way, then the concept of "no thing" becomes more concrete. Since all things are illusionary, no things can be real. Therefore, "no thing" is real.

You gotta love the divine paradox.

I think you are confused by the inevitable difference between our quasi concept reality, and reality as it is -because existence is an infinite, and our concepts of it which at best are analogies, cannot describe or define the thing...

We do not have words enough or know enough to describe completely even a single grain of sand, let alone the time to do so, and yet it has always been imperative to our survival that we consider the whole picture of existence at once... And we cannot fill a whole journey out of so many half steps, so when it comes to existence and to any infinite form, our judgements are not worth the breath we use to utter them...

1 Reply

@mark noble,

mark noble wrote:

The opposite of cat? What are you talking about.

Will you go to any lengths to substantiate your claim that Nothing exists?

Mark...

I never claimed that nothing existed, only that you aren't asking what you think you are asking. Nothing is a function not a thing. For that argument go back in the thread or any other thread you have started using no-X, every-x some-x.

1 Reply

@GoshisDead,

GoshisDead wrote:

mark noble wrote:

The opposite of cat? What are you talking about.

Will you go to any lengths to substantiate your claim that Nothing exists?

Mark...

I never claimed that nothing existed, only that you aren't asking what you think you are asking. Nothing is a function not a thing. For that argument go back in the thread or any other thread you have started using no-X, every-x some-x.

I think if nothing is nothing it is not a function... It can be conceived of as a direction... Nothing as a quasi concept is an infinite, so it cannot be defined or even imagined in totality, as an absolute... But nothing can be conceived as much less than something, as something lite, or something less, and this is true of all being so that not cat can be considerd as an opposite... We do that with moral forms... No one has justice, and yet we consider that we have injustice when we have neither, but more justice, and less justice respectively....

And people say not love, as sex without love, and its opposite comes to mind because every act has its emotion, and what is not love, or not caring??? They say more than they care to in their choice of words because when they deny love they deny humanity, their own and others...

So what if we cannot imagine nothing or a world without love, that our minds rebel at the impossiblity of the thought... We still need some referent to help us put our concepts of reality in persepective, and in context... Absolute nothing may well be impossible, and yet we still need the quasi concept of nothing...

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@mark noble,

Quote:

there is potentially a place where there is nothing

If there actually was a place where there was nothing, simply in that place existing, nothing must be something. As soon as our mind even conceptualizes the possibility of there being a place where there is nothing, that place of nothingness is real, therefore making it something, not nothing.

2 Replies

DOES NOTHING EXIST???

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