Does 'nothing' denote anything?
I view the concept of 'nothing' as a metaphysical term since it does not denote any-thing in the world. The number 2 can denote some-things, like two apples. However, no-thing can't denote anything because of its very own nature of there being no thing that it can denote to maintain its meaning. Nothing is nothing and can be nothing else than itself.
So, what does this all imply and what can be said about it? Is it something like an impossible object like 'square-circles' or rather what? No, it can't be something or anything because it is nothing.
Quite a peculiar word.
So, what does this all imply and what can be said about it? Is it something like an impossible object like 'square-circles' or rather what? No, it can't be something or anything because it is nothing.
Quite a peculiar word.
Comments (30)
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you want to be with me
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you want to be with me
I'm not tryin' to be your hero
'Cause that zero is too cold for me, Brrr
I'm not tryin' to be your highness
'Cause that minus is too low to see, yeah
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
And I'm not stuffin', believe you me
Don't you remember I told ya
I'm a soldier in the war on poverty, yeah
Yes, I am
goes into the history of the idea of zero. One interesting point is that at some stages, 'zero' was resisted as a heresy, it was literally un-thinkable. However as was to became clear, zero was indispensable for decimal notation, without which math couldn't even really get started.
Another interesting factlet - the symbol for zero, and one of the original names for zero, came from the hole in the middle seat of an arab dhow, a sailing dinghy which used to ply the Arabian sea.
See, the problem with nothing is that it creates more confusion than utility, when used out of formalized and logical systems.
I think about things in terms of all or nothing.
I have nothing.
There's nothing you or I can do.
I feel like I'm worth nothing.
Nothing in this world is XYZ.
Nothing interests me.
The set of 'nothing' does or does not exist.
My personal stance on the matter is that 'nothing' should not be used in ordinary language. There are few examples in the real world where nothing can mean anything useful apart from creating distortions.
I feel nothing about this matter/situation/state of affairs.
Nothing is bothering me.
Nothing you can say will persuade me otherwise.
People use the word 'nothing' in ordinary language all the time without issue. The confusion only comes about when the word is treated as as somehow problematic - as it is in the OP. It's a self-perpetuating circle that, unable to 'make sense of nothing', projects it's own confusion onto a perfectly good word and then declares 'it shouldn't be used'. This isn't 'ordinary language philosophy' - its it's exact opposite.
Sure it has connotative meaning, but apart from that if we assume its actual meaning (denotative) then it has no use in that sense.
And even if we do assume that 'actual meaning' is denotative, then we'd have to assume that connotation is 'non-actual', and explain how non-denotative sentence have 'non-actual' meaning (& how, despite their meaning being 'non-actual,' these sentences still somehow 'mean'.)
But that seems like an inauspicious path to go down.
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*(in the sense of denoting something...unless you're slipping quietly from 'denoting something' to 'literal meaning.' tho even this slippage wouldn't get you far, since 'nothing' itself has a 'literal meaning').
Like empty.
Your thoughts when unconscious, the sound of clapping with one hand, ...
The word "nothing" has plenty uses in everyday language.
0 is the cardinality of {}.
Maybe you're thinking of the topic of this SEP article?
I suppose that's more like the (missing) complement of anything and everything.
Such "nothing" isn't something that can be, isn't anything at all.
Just referent-less word (hence quoted), making a stage entry as if it were.
In that sense, a linguistic curiosity, expressing absence of anything and everything.
"Stranger: When we speak of that which is not,' it seems that we do not mean something contrary to what exists but only something that is different". 257b
Ontologically speaking, nothing has no place. But linguistically speaking, it's a very useful concept that's hard to do without. And this may be the case when we talk about ontological matters.
But supposing this means that nothing is somehow something? That's just word play. It is a cognitive distortion.
The universe (reality, the world, existence, whatever you call it) doesn't have this problem.
We use the term like it is an empty set.
Space is something, though. It's tied in with time. Gravity warps it. And virtual particles come in and out of existence at very small scales. Also, even if a patch of space has no particles in it, it still has fields.
But most space is going to have a stray particle here or there, if not more.
No, 'nothing' denotes nothing. Problem?
Yes, but one can speak of nothing; see, I just did.
Yes, but, nothing can be said about it. Nothing has no properties.
You just said something about it...it has the property of having no properties. In that it is quite unique.
The thought of an absence may be causative.
Language creating something from nothing. Is that how God performed ex nihilo?