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What is "nothing"

 
 
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 07:18 am
What's funny is when we believe that something is nothing.
We give nothing a name, thus turning that nothing into something, I mean , even nothing Is something because if it was nothing (or what we believe to be nothing)  it wouldn't exist and so it wouldn't be nothing, it just wouldn't be, it would simply cease to exist.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 12 • Views: 11,354 • Replies: 183
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JLNobody
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 01:51 pm
@Nothingsomething,
That is so, in a sense, but it is also the case, in another sense, that since there are no static "things", that everything is in the process of becoming not what it is (for a micro instant) now, every "something" is also "nothing", or what the buddhists call empty (or "emptiness" and "form" at the same time, cf. the Heart Sutra)
0 Replies
 
dalehileman
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 02:49 pm
@Nothingsomething,
Quote:
What's funny is when we believe that something is nothing.
Supposing the Universe to be finite, there’s nothing outside it. But that doesn’t make that nothing something

Quote:
We give nothing a name, thus turning that nothing into something,
Semantic issue. Giving it a name doesn’t make it to somehow come to be nor change into something
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 04:14 pm
@dalehileman,
Obviously...
0 Replies
 
Nothingsomething
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 04:23 pm
@dalehileman,
It kind of does because if it was actually nothing it would mean that it was nonexistent and so it wouldn't be there to name.
Fil Albuquerque
 
  2  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 05:14 pm
@Nothingsomething,
...are you sober ???
0 Replies
 
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Jun, 2012 06:14 am
@Nothingsomething,
Nothingsomething wrote:

It kind of does because if it was actually nothing it would mean that it was nonexistent and so it wouldn't be there to name.


So when there is nothing in my bank account, my oven, my fuel tank, or my pocket, I don't have a bank account, an oven, a fuel tank, or a pocket?

0 Replies
 
raprap
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Jun, 2012 06:27 am
@Nothingsomething,
Nothing is the 'null' set, which is an element of the set of all sets --forgive me I am a product of 'New' math.

Rap
0 Replies
 
JLNobody
 
  2  
Reply Mon 4 Jun, 2012 11:24 am
@Nothingsomething,
Could we not say that nothing is the absence of somethings?
Nothingsomething
 
  1  
Reply Sun 10 Jun, 2012 06:39 pm
@JLNobody,
Yes I guess you could say that in some things
0 Replies
 
bob600
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Jun, 2012 02:27 pm
@JLNobody,
Nothing is the absence of everything else except nothing.
bob600
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Jun, 2012 02:31 pm
@Nothingsomething,
You confuse nothing with non existance. They are two seperate things. Nothing exists in reality while non existance only exists in our minds.
0 Replies
 
JLNobody
 
  0  
Reply Wed 13 Jun, 2012 03:04 pm
@bob600,
I agree. It seems to me there are at least two forms of "nothing": (1) that which I find when I look into an empty box, and (2) that which I think when I try to conceptualize absolute nothingness.
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Jun, 2012 06:18 pm
@JLNobody,
Laughing that was you greatest moment so far...ultra amusing !
0 Replies
 
Cyracuz
 
  1  
Reply Thu 14 Jun, 2012 06:31 pm
@Nothingsomething,
What is "emptiness"?

"Nothing" is the same. It is 0 value of a previously specified thing. I favor emptiness, because then I don't have any things I have to not think about...
0 Replies
 
dalehileman
 
  1  
Reply Fri 15 Jun, 2012 11:27 am
@JLNobody,
Quote:
two forms of "nothing": (1) that which I find when I look into an empty box, and (2) that which I think
In the box is space

The entire fuss is purely semantic
Cyracuz
 
  1  
Reply Fri 15 Jun, 2012 01:55 pm
@dalehileman,
Perhaps you can call it semantics. I like to think of it like spinning around until you're dizzy, and then trying to walk in a straight line. Like children's birthday-party games. Smile
dalehileman
 
  1  
Reply Fri 15 Jun, 2012 02:09 pm
@Cyracuz,
Quote:
Like children's birthday-party games.
Yes but we should use more straightforward language, like the kids
Cyracuz
 
  1  
Reply Fri 15 Jun, 2012 02:40 pm
@dalehileman,
I appreciate that sentiment, and try my best to keep my language clear. I have the impression that if I cannot express something in simple terms, it is because I do not understand it well enough.
dalehileman
 
  1  
Reply Fri 15 Jun, 2012 08:47 pm
@Cyracuz,
I have that problem too but usually it’s just because I don’t understand it well enough
 

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