Nothing, the complete absence of anything, has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BC. Early Greek philosophers argued that it was impossible for ''nothing'' to exist. The
atomists allowed ''nothing'' but only in the spaces between the invisibly small atoms. For them, all space was filled with atoms.
Aristotle took the view that there exists
matter and there exists
space, a receptacle into which matter objects can be placed. This became the paradigm for classical scientists of the modern age like
Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
. Nevertheless, some philosophers, like
Descartes, continued to argue against the existence of empty space until the scientific discovery of a physical
vacuum.
Existentialists
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
like
Sartre and
Heidegger (as interpreted by Sartre) have associated ''nothing'' with consciousness. Some writers have made connections between Heidegger's concept of ''nothing'' and the
nirvana of Eastern religions.
Modern science does not equate ''vacuum'' with ''nothing''. Indeed, the vacuum in
quantum field theory
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...
is filled with
virtual particles. The quantum vacuum is often viewed as a modern version of an
aether theory.
Philosophy
Western philosophy
Some would consider the study of "nothing" to be foolish. A typical response of this type is voiced by
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) in conversation with his landlord, one Dr. Gozzi, who also happens to be a priest:
However, "nothingness" has been treated as a serious subject for a very long time. In philosophy, to avoid linguistic traps over the meaning of "nothing", a phrase such as ''not-being'' is often employed to make clear what is being discussed.
Parmenides
One of the earliest Western philosophers to consider nothing as a concept was
Parmenides
Parmenides of Elea (; grc-gre, Παρμενίδης ὁ Ἐλεάτης; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia.
Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Elea, from a wealthy and illustrious family. His dates a ...
(5th century BC), who was a Greek philosopher of the
monist
Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
* Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...
school. He argued that "nothing" cannot exist by the following line of reasoning: To speak of a thing, one has to speak of a thing that exists. Since we can speak of a thing in the past, this thing must still exist (in some sense) now, and from this he concludes that there is no such thing as change. As a corollary, there can be no such things as ''coming-into-being'', ''passing-out-of-being'', or ''not-being''.
Parmenides was taken seriously by other philosophers, influencing, for instance,
Socrates and
Plato. Aristotle gives Parmenides serious consideration but concludes, "Although these opinions seem to follow logically in a dialectical discussion, yet to believe them seems next door to madness when one considers the facts."
In modern times,
Albert Einstein's concept of
spacetime has led many scientists, including Einstein himself, to adopt a position remarkably similar to Parmenides. On the death of his friend
Michele Besso, Einstein consoled his widow with the words, "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For those of us that believe in physics, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
Leucippus
Leucippus (early 5th century BC), one of the
atomists, along with other philosophers of his time, made attempts to reconcile this monism with the everyday observation of motion and change. He accepted the
monist
Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
* Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...
position that there could be no motion without a void. The void is the opposite of being. It is ''not-being''. On the other hand, there exists
something
Something may refer to:
Philosophy and language
*Something (concept)
*Something, an English indefinite pronoun
Music
Albums
* ''Something'' (Chairlift album), 2012
* ''Something'' (Shirley Bassey album), 1970
* ''Something'' (Shirley Scott a ...
known as an absolute
plenum, a space filled with matter, and there can be no motion in a plenum because it is completely full. But, there is not just one monolithic plenum, for existence consists of a multiplicity of plenums. These are the invisibly small "atoms" of Greek atomist theory, later expanded by
Democritus (c. 460–370 BC), which allows the void to "exist" between them. In this scenario, macroscopic objects can ''come-into-being'', move through space, and pass into ''not-being'' by means of the coming together and moving apart of their constituent atoms. The void must exist to allow this to happen, or else the "frozen world" of Parmenides must be accepted.
Bertrand Russell points out that this does not exactly defeat the argument of Parmenides but, rather, ignores it by taking the rather modern scientific position of starting with the observed data (motion, etc.) and constructing a theory based on the data, as opposed to Parmenides' attempts to work from pure logic. Russell also observes that both sides were mistaken in believing that there can be no motion in a plenum, but arguably motion cannot ''start'' in a plenum. Cyril Bailey notes that Leucippus is the first to say that a "thing" (the void) might be real without being a body and points out the irony that this comes from a materialistic atomist. Leucippus is therefore the first to say that "nothing" has a reality attached to it.
Aristotle, Newton, Descartes
Aristotle (384–322 BC) provided the classic escape from the logical problem posed by Parmenides by distinguishing things that are ''matter'' and things that are ''space''. In this scenario, space is not "nothing" but, rather, a receptacle in which objects of matter can be placed. The true void (as "nothing") is different from "space" and is removed from consideration. This characterization of space reached its pinnacle with
Isaac Newton who asserted the existence of absolute space.
René Descartes, on the other hand, returned to a Parmenides-like argument of denying the existence of space. For Descartes, there was matter, and there was extension of matter leaving no room for the existence of "nothing".
The idea that space can actually be empty was generally still not accepted by philosophers who invoked arguments similar to the plenum reasoning. Although Descartes views on this were challenged by
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer.
He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...
, he declined to overturn the traditional belief, ''
horror vacui
Horror vacui can refer to:
* Horror vacui (art), a concept in art approximately translated from Latin ''fear of empty spaces''
*Horror vacui (physics), a physical postulate
* ''Horror Vacui'' (film), a 1984 German satirical film
* ''Horror Vacui' ...
'', commonly stated as "nature abhors a vacuum". This remained so until
Evangelista Torricelli invented the
barometer in 1643 and showed that an empty space appeared if the mercury tube was turned upside down. This phenomenon being known as the Torricelli vacuum and the unit of vacuum pressure, the
torr, being named after him. Even Torricelli's teacher, the famous
Galileo Galilei had previously been unable to adequately explain the sucking action of a pump.
John the Scot
John the Scot, or
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
John Scotus Eriugena, also known as Johannes Scotus Erigena, John the Scot, or John the Irish-born ( – c. 877) was an Irish people, Irish Neoplatonism, Neoplatonist Philosophy, philosopher, Theology, theologian and poet of the Early M ...
(c. 815–877) held many surprisingly heretical beliefs for the time he lived in for which no action appears ever to have been taken against him. His ideas mostly stem from, or are based on his work of translating
pseudo-Dionysius. His beliefs are essentially
pantheist and he classifies evil, amongst many other things, into ''not-being''. This is done on the grounds that evil is the opposite of good, a quality of God, but God can have no opposite, since God is everything in the pantheist view of the world. Similarly, the idea that God created the world out of "nothing" is to be interpreted as meaning that the "nothing" here is synonymous with God.
G. W. F. Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) is the philosopher who brought the
dialectic
Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing ...
al method to a new pinnacle of development. According to Hegel in ''
Science of Logic'', the dialectical methods consists of three steps. First, a thesis is given, which can be any
proposition in
logic. Second, the antithesis of the thesis is formed and, finally, a synthesis incorporating both thesis and antithesis. Hegel believed that no proposition taken by itself can be completely true. Only the whole can be true, and the dialectical synthesis was the means by which the whole could be examined in relation to a specific proposition. Truth consists of the whole process. Separating out thesis, antithesis, or synthesis as a stand-alone statement results in something that is in some way or other untrue. The concept of "nothing" arises in Hegel right at the beginning of his ''Logic''. The whole is called by Hegel the "Absolute" and is to be viewed as something spiritual. Hegel then has:
*
Thesis: the absolute is pure being
*
Antithesis
Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together f ...
: the absolute is nothing
*
Synthesis
Synthesis or synthesize may refer to:
Science Chemistry and biochemistry
*Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors
** Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organ ...
: the absolute is becoming
Existentialists
The most prominent figure among the
existentialists
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
is
Jean-Paul Sartre, whose ideas in his book ''
Being and Nothingness'' (''L'être et le néant'') are heavily influenced by ''
Being and Time'' (''Sein und Zeit'') of
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
, although Heidegger later stated that he was misunderstood by Sartre. Sartre defines two kinds of "being" (être). One kind is ''être-en-soi'', the brute existence of things such as a tree. The other kind is ''être-pour-soi'' which is consciousness. Sartre claims that this second kind of being is "nothing" since consciousness cannot be an object of consciousness and can possess no essence. Sartre, and even more so,
Jaques Lacan, use this conception of nothing as the foundation of their atheist philosophy. Equating nothingness with being leads to creation from nothing and hence God is no longer needed for there to be existence.
Eastern philosophy
The understanding of "nothing" varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions. For instance, ''
Śūnyatā'' (emptiness), unlike "nothingness", is considered to be a
state of mind in some forms of
Buddhism (see
Nirvana,
mu, and
Bodhi
The English term enlightenment is the Western translation of various Buddhist terms, most notably bodhi and vimutti. The abstract noun ''bodhi'' (; Sanskrit: बोधि; Pali: ''bodhi''), means the knowledge or wisdom, or awakened intellect ...
). Achieving "nothing" as a state of mind in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were
consciously
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scient ...
thinking. A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase the mind and clear the thoughts to better focus on the shot. Some authors have pointed to similarities between the Buddhist conception of nothingness and the ideas of Martin Heidegger and existentialists like Sartre, although this connection has not been explicitly made by the philosophers themselves.
In some
Eastern philosophies
Eastern philosophy or Asian philosophy includes the various philosophies that originated in East and South Asia, including Chinese philosophy, Japanese philosophy, Korean philosophy, and Vietnamese philosophy; which are dominant in East Asia, ...
, the concept of "nothingness" is characterized by an
egoless state of being in which one fully realizes one's own small part in the cosmos.
The
Kyoto School handles the concept of nothingness as well.
Science
Despite the proven existence of vacuum, scientists through the 17th to 19th centuries thought there must be a medium pervading all space that allowed the transmission of light or gravity. Thus, in this period, it was not accepted that complete ''nothing'' was possible. Theories describing such a medium are collectively known as
aether theories, so named as an evocation of the
aether, the classical element from Greek philosophy. In particular, the medium that is supposed to allow the transmission of light is called the
luminiferous aether. This became the centre of attention after
James Clerk Maxwell proposed that light was an
electromagnetic wave in 1865.
Early aether theories include those of
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...
(1665) and
Christiaan Huygens
Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of ...
(1690). Newton also had an aether theory, but to Newton, it was not the medium of transmission since he theorised light was composed of "corpuscles" which moved by simple mechanical motion. He needed the aether instead to explain
refraction. Early theories generally proposed a mechanical medium of some sort, allowing the possibility of the same medium supporting both light and gravity. Proof that light has a wave nature, rather than Newton's corpuscles, was provided by
Thomas Young in his 1803
interference experiment, seemingly confirming the need for an aether. The most well known attempt to detect the existence of the aether was conducted by
Albert A. Michelson in an
experiment of 1881, later repeated with
Edward W. Morley
Edward Williams Morley (January 29, 1838 – February 24, 1923) was an American scientist known for his precise and accurate measurement of the atomic weight of oxygen, and for the Michelson–Morley experiment.
Biography
Morley was born in New ...
in 1887 with more precision. This failed to show the desired effect, but reluctant to abandon the aether theory, various attempts where made to modify it to account for the Michelson-Morley result. Finally,
Albert Einstein, building on the work of
Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (; 18 July 1853 – 4 February 1928) was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He also derived the Lorentz t ...
, published his theory of
special relativity in 1905 which dispenses entirely with the need for a luminiferous aether to explain the transmission of light.
Although a physical medium was no longer required, the concept of aether still did not entirely vanish. It remained necessary to assign properties to the vacuum for various purposes. In some respects ''vacuum'' and ''aether'' are treated as synonyms by science. In modern
quantum field theory
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...
, a completely empty vacuum is not at
zero-point energy, the lowest possible energy state. First proposed by
Paul Dirac in 1927, the lowest energy state has constant random
vacuum fluctuations
In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation (also known as a vacuum state fluctuation or vacuum fluctuation) is the temporary random change in the amount of energy in a point in space, as prescribed by Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. ...
which bring into existence short-lived
virtual particles. This is somewhat reminiscent of early philosophical plenum ideas, and means that ''vacuum'' and ''nothing'' are certainly not synonyms.
[Milonni, p. 35]
See also
*
A Universe from Nothing
*
Absolute zero
Absolute zero is the lowest limit of the thermodynamic temperature scale, a state at which the enthalpy and entropy of a cooled ideal gas reach their minimum value, taken as zero kelvin. The fundamental particles of nature have minimum vibration ...
*
Action at a distance
*
Big Bounce
The Big Bounce is a hypothesized cosmological model for the origin of the known universe. It was originally suggested as a phase of the ''cyclic model'' or ''oscillatory universe'' interpretation of the Big Bang, where the first cosmological even ...
*
Cosmogony
Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe.
Overview
Scientific theories
In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...
*
Dark matter
*
Empty (disambiguation)
*
Empty set
In mathematics, the empty set is the unique set having no elements; its size or cardinality (count of elements in a set) is zero. Some axiomatic set theories ensure that the empty set exists by including an axiom of empty set, while in other ...
*
Eternal inflation
Eternal inflation is a hypothetical inflationary universe model, which is itself an outgrowth or extension of the Big Bang theory.
According to eternal inflation, the inflationary phase of the universe's expansion lasts forever throughout most of ...
*
Everything
*
Ex nihilo
*
False vacuum
*
Meontology
Meontology is the philosophy, philosophical study of non-being.
History
The word comes from the Ancient Greek μή, ''me'' "non" and ὄν, ''on'' "being" (confer ontology). It refers not exactly to the study of what does not exist, but an attemp ...
*
Meaning of life
The meaning of life, or the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "What ...
*
Mu (negative)
*
Negation (linguistics)
*
Negative theology
Apophatic theology, also known as negative theology, is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God, the Divine, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness th ...
*
Nihilism
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
*
No
*
Nobody (disambiguation)
Nobody may refer to:
* Nobody, an indefinite pronoun
Nobody may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Nobody (''Kingdom Hearts''), a race of beings in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' video game series
*Nobody, a character in the Jim Jarmusch films ''De ...
*
Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing comes from nothing ( gr, οὐδὲν ἐξ οὐδενός; la, ex nihilo nihil fit) is a philosophical dictum first argued by Parmenides. It is associated with ancient Greek cosmology, such as is presented not just in the works of Homer ...
*
Quantum vacuum fluctuations
*
Ultimate fate of the universe
*
Vacuum
*
Vanitas
*
Vacuous truth
*
Void (disambiguation)
*
Zero
Notes
References
* Hsu, Jong-Ping, ''Einstein's Relativity and Beyond: New Symmetry Approaches'', World Scientific, 2000 .
*
Milonni, Peter W., ''The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics'', Academic Press, 2013 .
*
Pieper, Josef; Wald, Berthold, ''For the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of Philosophy'', Translator: Roger Wasserman, Ignatius Press, 2006 .
*
Russell, Bertrand. ''History of Western Philosophy'', Routledge, 1995 .
*
Schaffner, Kenneth F., ''Nineteenth-Century Aether Theories'', Elsevier, 2016 .
*
Whittaker, Edmund Taylor, ''A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity from the age of Descrates to the Close of the Ninenteenth Century'', London: Longmans Green & Co, 1910 .
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Existentialist concepts
Perception
Ontology
Concepts in metaphysics