I am so glad you ar epicking up on this VERY IMPORTANT point. (01)
I once attended a philology seminar in Spain called 'the poetry of
silence' poetica del silencio, which was studying precisely the role
of intervals in poetic speech, making that point. It can be equally
applied to music. Things can exist only because they are in contrast
to what not exists, something that in vedic literature is referret to
as 'duality' (not sure how you call that in western physics, but
surely such phenomenon must have been observed) (02)
'Nothing' can be seen from many viewpoints, in fact I think I should
study it in more detail (03)
1) nothing is something that does not exist - therefore cannot be modelled
I have been wrestiling a lot with this notion, then decided toa ccept
that 'nothing' exists
although that is causing me much trouble - is nothing part of
everything? is nothing the
complementary side to everything? never mind, lets consider it
'undecidable' at the moment (04)
2) nothing is something that exists in a different dimension (the
other side of the black hole)
If something exists that has a '(negative) dimension, then modelling
its critical, in the same way that minus zero stuff exists in its own
right, (05)
Eastern philosophy, places much importance in the 'void'. The void is
the creative space where things can come into being. To paraphrase
tao teh ching: (06)
The vessel (a cup) is only useful thanks to its voidness part,
a room is made of the space within some walls, but it could not be
used if there weren't empt y spaces such as doors and windows,
Only thanks to emptyness that fullness can be achieved. This we also
apply in tai chi, and some internal forms of Kung fu. etc (07)
(more examples here: http://wayist.org/ttc%20compared/chap11.htm) (08)
In classical western thinking there is no place for it, I am glad you
like the idea of making it a category, I am still pondering that one. (09)
cheers (010)
PDM (011)
On 7/26/07, paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx <paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 7/26/07, Deborah MacPherson <debmacp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > What "is not there" can be just as important as what is there.
> >
> > What mathematical system works without zeros and placeholders?
> >
> > "Nothing" merits a catagory.
> >
> > Deborah MacPherson
> >
> > On 7/25/07, Waclaw Kusnierczyk <Waclaw.Marcin.Kusnierczyk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> > > John F. Sowa wrote:
> > > > Wacek,
> > > >
> > > > The question of how to or whether to represent a null value of
> > > > some kind is a context-dependent issue about how to regularize
> > > > the operators of some mathematical system.
> > > >
> > > > vQ> If you and me are just you and me, then nothing is nothing,
> > > > > no entity at all, and not the empty set. You can well
> > > > > interpret 'nothing' as a sheet of paper on which there is
> > > > > no drawing, though there is the sheet -- how do such
> > > > > interpretations help?
> > > >
> > > > The number 0, for example, simplifies the statements of many
> > > > arithmetic principles. Similarly, the empty set simplifies
> > > > many of the axioms of set theory. In lattices, the bottom
> > > > symbol simplifies many axioms. In a Boolean lattice, the
> > > > bottom corresponds to a proposition that is always false;
> > > > such a proposition doesn't say anything useful, but it makes
> > > > it possible to formulate the axioms more systematically.
> > > >
> > > > For some mathematical structures, a null value has no useful
> > > > role. In most versions of mereology, for example, there is
> > > > no empty part. An atom in mereology is defined to be something
> > > > that has no part other than itself. In such systems, the word
> > > > 'nothing' is just a way of saying 'no thing'. Unlike the empty
> > > > set, which is assumed to exist in set theory, the word 'nothing'
> > > > (or a formal symbol that represents it) would be a way of saying
> > > > "It is false that there exists an x such that..."
> > > >
> > > > In short, the concept of 'nothing' or a 'null value' depends
> > > > on the operations needed to regularize some system.
> > >
> > > No doubt here. I thought we were talking about ontology there, and
> > > interpreting 'nothing' as denoting the empty set (an entity in itself)
> > > does not seem correct to me. Of course, you may build a mathematical
> > > model of reality in which nothing is modelled as the empty set (and the
> > > empty set is modelled as the set composed of the empty set), and such a
> > > model may be used to interpret sentences containing the word 'nothing'.
> > >
> > > But I do not see how "''nothing'', or
> > > ''nonentity'' or ''nonbeing'', interpreted as the empty set, is
> another
> > > ontological category."
> > >
> > >
> > > vQ
> > >
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> --
> Paola Di Maio
> School of IT
> www.mfu.ac.th
> *********************************************
> (012)
--
Paola Di Maio
School of IT
www.mfu.ac.th
********************************************* (013)
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