What is nothing?

[MSizer]

Anything that can be posited is ultimately something, and nothing is no exception.

yes it is an exception. Nothingness it a lack of somethingness, therefore it does not represent something at all.

Just because we've never witnessed it, it doesn't mean it's not possible. It's kinda like that old story about the frog telling the tadpole that dryness is the lack of wetness. It doesn't help him, but dry is still a concept to describe the lack of wetness. Dryness is therefore nothingness with respect to wet, but that doesn't make it "something".

 

[Kilgore Trout]

When I posit that my feet hurt, I'm not talking about the concept.

Your fee hurting isn't nothing.

When I posit that nothing is real, I am similiarly not talking about the concept (though I am being deliberately and necessarily ambiguous).

So, if nothing is real, then something is real?

 

[Willamena]

So, if nothing is real, then something is real?

When nothing is posited, it is something. I am getting a message across by talking about it.

(More than one, with the added ambiguity.)

 

[nameless]

By true darkness, I mean unseeable darkness.

what difference you feel in ur mind for darkness and true darkness?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

When nothing is posited, it is something. I am getting a message across by talking about it.

Right, when nothing is posited, it is something - a concept. It doesn't make what the concept represents something though.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

what difference you feel in ur mind for darkness and true darkness?

The same as the difference between nothing and true nothingness.

 

[Willamena]

Right, when nothing is posited, it is something - a concept. It doesn't make what the concept represents something though.

But I wasn't positing a concept. I was conveying a message about something real.

The 'concept of nothing' is not the subject of the sentence "Nothing is real".

 

[nameless]

The same as the difference between nothing and true nothingness.

haha wonderful answer,
i mean the difference in color you feel in your mind, what is the color for darkness and true darkness?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

But I wasn't positing a concept. I was conveying a message about something real.

The 'concept of nothing' is not the subject of the sentence "Nothing is real".

But a sentence like this is simply a matter of semantics. The 'concept of nothing' isn't the subject of the sentence, because the sentence isn't actually addressing the concept of nothing. Rather, it is really making a statement about everything.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

haha wonderful answer,
i mean the difference in color you feel in your mind, what is the color for darkness and true darkness?

Dark isn't a color.

 

[nameless]

By true darkness, I mean unseeable darkness.

Dark isn't a color.

differenciate unseeable darkness and seeable darkness.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

differenciate unseeable darkness and seeable darkness.

Differentiate nothingness and unthinkable nothingness.

 

[nameless]

The same as the difference between nothing and true nothingness.

Differentiate nothingness and unthinkable nothingness.

you already admitted that you know the difference, pls relate it with darkness and true darkness.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

you already admitted that you know the difference, pls relate it with darkness and true darkness.

No, my point is that I don't understand the difference. What is the actual difference between "nothing," by its broadest definition, and "true nothingness," in your opinion?

 

[nameless]

No, my point is that I don't understand the difference. What is the actual difference between "nothing," by its broadest definition, and "true nothingness," in your opinion?

if you dont know the difference, then how did you related the same difference to darkness and true true darkness?

 

[Willamena]

The 'concept of nothing' isn't the subject of the sentence, because the sentence isn't actually addressing the concept of nothing. Rather, it is really making a statement about everything.

Just so; or properly, in that one context, the lack of anything.

Nothing loses again.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Just so; or properly, in that one context, the lack of anything.

Nothing loses again.

And remains nothing!

 

[Kilgore Trout]

if you dont know the difference, then how did you related the same difference to darkness and true true darkness?

Wait, are we talking about true darkness or true true darkness?

 

[Willamena]

And remains nothing!

Nothing is not the concept of nothing. Agreed?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Nothing is not the concept of nothing. Agreed?

The concept of nothing isn't nothing, yes.