Does nothing exist?
if nothing existed, we wouldent be here...
therefore nothing doesent exist, cause if it did we wouldent be here
right=?
:confused: :confused:
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Does nothing exist?
if nothing existed, we wouldent be here...
therefore nothing doesent exist, cause if it did we wouldent be here
right=?
:confused: :confused:
Ever heard of Nihilism?
nope
:)Quote:
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. In the 20th century, nihilistic themes--epistemological failure, value destruction, and cosmic purposelessness--have preoccupied artists, social critics, and philosophers. Mid-century, for example, the existentialists helped popularize tenets of nihilism in their attempts to blunt its destructive potential. By the end of the century, existential despair as a response to nihilism gave way to an attitude of indifference, often associated with antifoundationalism.
Maybe if your a nihilist, you should go to your doctor and ask for some Prozac...
Have a look. Interesting.
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/n/nihilism.htm
thats actually something rather interesting... but im actually trying to proove the oppisite,
if nothing DID exist,
we wouldent be here
so there is no such thing as nothing, there has to be something
I think you have answered your own question there sarin.
;)
lol, yeah pretty much.. i was jsut trying to get an interesting discussion going
Whomever wrote this, needs to re-read Nietzsche. Nietzsche a nihilist? No way. At least not in the meaning that the word nihilism is given here. Nietzsche a pessimist? No way. Nietzsche, believe in nothing? No way. Nietzsche, no loyalties? Yeah right...Quote:
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/n/nihilism.htm
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history.
Nietzsche was known as 'the philosopher with the hammer', beating down all previous philosophies, yet creating his own instead. His method has been referred to as the '7 antis' (anti-moralist, anti-democratic, anti-socialist, anti-feminist, anti-intellectualist, ANTI-PESSIMIST, anti-christ)...
Nietsche WAS a nihilist if you take the original definition of the term:Quote:
He who says 'life isn't worth anything', is actually saying 'I am worth nothing'
Nietzsche starts his 'mission' with declaring the death of God. There is no more absolute measurement for truth, for good and evil, for ugly and beautifull...Quote:
A nihilist is someone who doesn't bend for any authority, who doesn't accept any principle, however much respected that principle is.
That's what Nietzsche's nihilism is about...
From there on, he constructs his own philosophy, replacing God with the Uebermensch: the Uebermensch is the human being that knows God is dead. The Uebermensch is he who knows that he'll never gain a place in the Being. The Uebermensch is he who also knows he is part of that Being. The Uebermensch is he who knows to deal with this contradiction...
Dang, am I off-topic or what?
Mmmm... try playing with the emphasis on your words:Quote:
Originally posted by SarinMage
if nothing DID exist,
we wouldent be here
so there is no such thing as nothing, there has to be something
if NOTHING did exist <---> if nothing did EXIST
This entire matter is not about something vs. nothing, it's about existance...
Saying that NOTHING exists, doesn't mean we can't be here...
Saying that nothing EXISTS, means we can't be here...
you got it, you got the idea.... im no good with that damned emphisis thing
Aha, Negative, you identified the core of the matter:
More the "nothing EXISTS"Quote:
Mmmm... try playing with the emphasis on your words:
if NOTHING did exist <---> if nothing did EXIST
This entire matter is not about something vs. nothing, it's about existence...
Saying that NOTHING exists, doesn't mean we can't be here...
Saying that nothing EXISTS, means we can't be here...
What is nothing? A void where everything does not exist (or no thing exists there)[these are logically equivalent, if I could write the symbols for the universal quantifier and the existential quantifier]
If something (some thing) does not exist, then we cannot talk about it. [For we only know what exists, and we can only talk about what we know, how could you know something that doesn't exist? You would have to know what that thing is and you would have to know that it does not exist]
Therefore, if nothing (no thing) does exist, then we cannot talk about it.
Such that we cannot attribute non-existence to a thing only existence, but I have never run into a Purple Monkey (though if they can make mice glow in the dark, purple monkeys will probably follow soon, but that is a whole other issue), therefore I say that they don't exist, but how can I know that they don't exist somewhere (in a top secret lab, or, dundundunnnn other dimensions). Since these other dimensions do not exist in our dimension (note the stipulation), we cannot say that they do not exist.
So, even though I sort have lost track of where I was going.
It follows that we can only say "nothing" within a frame of reference, nothing can only be a comparison to something when we speak about it. However, we cannot say that "nothing EXISTS" because if it does it is not here. In addition, we also cannot say that it does not exist, because well we cannot say anything about it.
So, there is something to think about, I'm exited to see what happens with this,
Dhej
It follows then, from Einstein, that we can, talk about things that do not exist. In hypothesizing about that which does not exist we can bring those things into existance. Also, consider that from the viewpoint of Western religions the entity that created the world "spoke" it into existance from nothingness.Quote:
The problems that we have today cannot be solved with the same level of thinking with which we created those problems. -Einstein
It is possible that nothing does exist and it is separate and apart from us..."us" being something. In other words, nothing and something can coexist being different forces that are at work with the realm of the universe...take a look at black holes and quasars as an example of that.
Cheers!
but then I said a lot about nothing didn't I?
We can omly think by analogy.
"Object A is like object B"
Then we extend our thinking:
"Object C is somewhat like object A, only different."
If god created man "in his own image",
then man is "like god", but to a lesser degree.
If god is "the creator", then, by analogy, man
is "a creator", capable of creating ideas.
"Nothing", then, is a concept that we have
created. We haven't seen or experienced "nothing",
but ,since we have experienced "something", we are
able to create a concept to contrast with it.
:cool:
Can you 'think' about nothing? How would you go about it, what would you think of? People always think and if you try thinking of nothing, you are always gonna think of something. Hmmm...I just re-read what I wrote there...sounds confusing - what the hell am I on about?
OK, well, whenever I try think about nothing, in my mind I get a picture of just a black background with nothing there. I try to push everything out of my mind. But is that really nothing? It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to think about nothing...try it!! What are your opinions?
Greg