Lecture
Nothing — a category fixing the absence, the non-being of a definite entity, or the absence, the negation of being in general , the active principle of negation.
«Nothing» in its concrete sense pertains to the sphere of relative non-being (which may have a spatio-temporal localization), while «nothing» in its non-concrete sense pertains to the sphere of absolute non-being (which is infinite) . In a figurative sense, the word «nothing» is used as a hyperbole for diminishing the significance of an object or phenomenon.
In physics, one should distinguish between the concepts of vacuum, absolute emptiness, and absolute «nothing». Vacuum is the absence in space of any substance whatsoever , yet various fields can still exist in a vacuum .
If we imagine that in some region of space there is no matter or energy (which is practically impossible), it would still remain a place where something could be placed. Nevertheless, physics has a superposition principle, according to which the field produced by one source, for example the gravitational field of matter, is superimposed on the field produced by another source. As a result of such interaction, the field strength in a certain region of space may decrease all the way down to zero.
«Nothing» is a symbolic expression, a linguistic representation of what is imagined as the absence not only of matter but of space itself, the absence of everything whatsoever. «Nothing» does not exist, there is no positive definition for it; it is a symbol, a mode of thought connected with the idea of the non-existence of anything at all, and this is already pure philosophy.
Physicists consider theories of the formation of the Universe «out of nothing» , however emptiness or nothing is not a correct physical concept.
Since every existent is a unity of two aspects — being and essence — «nothing», as the negation of the aspect of determinacy, of essence, is at the same time also a negation of being. As pure negation, «nothing» is sustained only in language. Everything that exists has determinacy, and therefore «nothing» does not exist, there is no such thing, but we are capable of relating to any determinacy from the standpoint of negation and holding to that position . Thus «nothing» exists in this world thanks to us, thanks to our capacity for negation, just as nihilism is the negation of the value of the world .
Plato and the Neoplatonists, Hegel and others recognized «nothing» as a key category of ontology (alongside God, being, the absolute, and others), rejecting the principle that nothing comes from nothing (Lat. ex nihilo nihil fit).
In another approach, going back to the Eleatic school of ancient Greek philosophy, «nothing» arises from formal negation and is defined as a formal-logical concept. Some philosophers state that emptiness is possible only as a concept in human consciousness : nature abhors a vacuum (Lat. natura abhorret a vacuo) — Aristotle.
Within materialist philosophy, the concept of «nothing» is not a philosophical category, since such a category would contradict the postulates of the indestructibility of the material world.
The understanding of «nothing» in the Eastern tradition differs greatly from the Western understanding. For example, shunyata (emptiness), unlike nothing, is considered in some strands of Buddhism to be a state of mind (see nirvana, mu, bodhi). Attaining «nothing» as a state of mind allows one to focus one's thoughts or actions at a level unattainable through conscious reflection on them. A classic example is an archer clearing his mind for an accurate shot. Some authors point to similarities between the Buddhist concept of «nothing» and the ideas of Martin Heidegger, as well as of existentialists such as J. P. Sartre ].
Non-being — the absence, the negation of being, non-existence in general, a non-existent reality. Nothing is a mode of existence of non-being. According to Democritus, non-being is present among being, filling and permeating it .
Non-being is an ontological category that is the negation of the concept of «being». The difficulty of comprehending «non-being», noted back in his time by Parmenides, is as follows: in a general sense, non-being is absence, but a description of absence must rely on some characteristics, and the presence of characteristics, in turn, entails the presence of an object being described. Thus a paradox arises regarding the presence of absolute absence. It was introduced into Russian philosophical vocabulary by Grigory Teplov in 1751.
Parmenides, the founder of the Eleatic philosophical school, who was the first to raise the problem of the comprehension of being, draws a direct correspondence between the latter and reality. Contrasting being with non-being, Parmenides denies non-being any possibility of existence whatsoever . According to the teaching of the Eleatic school, non-being does not exist, and as a consequence it cannot be thought or rationally described :
It can only be said and thought that which is: for being is, and nothing is not.
The development of the philosophy of the atomists, chiefly through Democritus and Leucippus, brought a new understanding of the concept of «non-being». Here non-being was regarded as «emptiness» (nothing), and the right to real existence was recognized for it. Democritus's famous postulate held that being is no more real than non-being. The atomists conceived of non-being as a kind of space, an extension.
With the development of Plato's dialectical philosophy, the question of the existence of non-being arises anew. Since Plato's dialectic implied the transition of an object into its opposite (the thesis of the unity of opposites), it followed that being must transition into non-being . Thus was formulated the thesis of the existence of non-being, the necessity of which is equal to the necessity of the existence of being itself.
Christianity preaches being (eternal life), possible only in God, who has always and originally existed, who always had a plan for the world and, at some moment of eternity, created out of non-being (nothing) the primordial matter (the earth) and the invisible world (the heavens). From this being God then created all the angels and the material Universe (2 Macc. 7:28).
The existentialists wrote a great deal about non-being as a boundary of the perspective of human life. For Martin Heidegger, non-being is disclosed to a person in a state of dread (Angst) .
One of the well-known researchers of the problem of non-being in Russian philosophical scholarship is A. N. Chanyshev, author of the philosophical work «Treatise on Non-Being». In it he recognizes non-being as the only thing that truly exists, whereas being, in his view, is relative and changeable. Chanyshev considers the whole of human culture to be an attempt to flee from non-being, which is impossible to do. Thus the philosopher proved the existence of non-being through the temporal aspect: only the present is being, while the past and the future are non-being relative to the present. The «emergent mode» of non-being lies in the fact that a great many things, before their discovery or invention, likewise existed in non-being. Moreover, any object existing in one place, at a given moment, does not exist at all other points in space.
Most contemporary philosophers belonging to the analytic tradition either do not consider the category of non-being at all, or understand it as the state in which non-existent objects are found.
According to the data of contemporary physics, the ancient materialist-atomistic understanding of non-being as empty space is devoid of meaning, since:
Thus, the views of contemporary physics on non-being in the material world of the Universe are close to the point of view of Parmenides: «non-being does not exist», although the philosophical view is broader, considering the existence of non-being beyond the observable Universe as well.
According to the Old Testament, both the angels and the visible Universe were created out of nothing (2 Macc. 7:28). In an extended understanding, «nothing» is sometimes taken to mean the primordial chaos: «And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters» (Gen. 1:2).
Some religions (Islam, Hinduism, Christianity) regard God as something omnipresent (existing absolutely everywhere); it is asserted that He permeates everything that exists in space and by His power sustains every body in being,[13] and such reasoning, for pantheistic theories, grounds the deification of all things.
God created the world «out of (absolute) nothing», while the very question of the existence of anything outside God prior to the creation of the world is considered absurd in the Christian tradition, since time (before) and space (outside) are forms of the world's existence. Absolute «nothing», logically speaking, cannot be permeated by God, otherwise it would cease to be «nothing», and accordingly divine omnipresence does not extend to it. In some religions (for example, Hinduism) the incomprehensible primordial «nothing» is linked to the absolute, which existed «when there was neither the existent nor the non-existent». Nothing is also called the mirror of the absolute.
An important milestone in the history of arithmetic was the invention of the number and numeral zero, which identifies nothing among the digits.
An empty set, containing not a single element, by definition contains nothing,[15] and at the same time this empty set (nothing) is a subset of all sets, since every set has room for emptiness.
The use of infinitesimal quantities was an important milestone in the development of mathematical analysis.
In programming, «nothing» (in VB.Net), or «null» (in C, C#, Java, etc.), None (in Python), nil (in Ruby, Lisp) is used as a keyword representing an uninitialized variable, pointer, or reference not associated with any object. Similarly, in SQL, null is a symbolic representation of the absence of data.
Most assembly languages have a «no operation» instruction, NOP (often with a numeric value of zero) — a command that instructs the processor to do nothing.
In UNIX-like operating systems there is a special file, /dev/null, representing an «empty device».
Nothing — is also a negative pronoun for inanimate objects. It can be used in various ways:
| If there is nothing in the glass — it means the glass is empty.
(nothing there: no objects at all) We did absolutely nothing in her classes — we only listened to endless jokes and stories from her life. (nothing useful) To annihilate — to reduce to nothing. |
Nothing — the genitive form of «nothing» in Russian, can also mean the denial of problems, that everything is fine.
— Well, how are things with you? — Oh, nothing much. We're getting by.(nothing in particular is happening) Worthless, a nonentity — small, transient, worth nothing, dishonorable[16 |
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