# Nothing is............. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 10, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763 "2008-04-10T14:57:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/1 "2008-04-10T14:57:25Z")
What? What is “Nothing?” Are there words in the English language to describe “Nothing?” If you describe it then isn’t it “Something?” ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/2 "2008-04-10T14:58:42Z")
You mean besides the word “nothing”? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/3 "2008-04-10T15:00:35Z")
Void post. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/4 "2008-04-10T15:04:09Z")
Null ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/5 "2008-04-10T15:06:28Z")
Nothing is…“No thing”. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/6 "2008-04-10T15:06:48Z")
Sounds like we’ve got a bit of a semantic paradox here, perhaps this belongs in GD. Although a perfect vacuum does not exist, let us suppose that it does. It would be a complete and utter lack of anything, no molecules, no particle flux. Yet we can conceive of, describe and name this complete nothingness, so it must be something after all. So nothing is really something. But is that really a paradox? I suppose “nothing” would be if the universe didn’t exist and we weren’t here to think about it. In a more colloquial sense, nothing is the lack of something otherwise expected to be there. What’s in the box? Nothing. Well, my 9-year-old-smartass son will say, “Yes, there’s air!” So, in that case…wait a second, what was the question again? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/7 "2008-04-10T15:11:13Z")
Probably not the opposite of something, but I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/8 "2008-04-10T20:06:16Z")
I remember reading somewhere that “Nothing” is unstable. That’s why the Big Bang happened. Perhaps there can’t be “Nothing” Then again, perhaps “Nothing” is the center of a Black Hole. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/9 "2008-04-10T20:15:24Z")
Nothing is the absense of something. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/10 "2008-04-10T20:24:17Z")
The [Earl of Rochester](http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/wilmon01.html) put it best: Upon Nothing Nothing, thou elder brother even to shade, That hadst a being ere the world was made, And (well fixed) art alone of ending not afraid. Ere time and place were, time and place were not, When primitive Nothing Something straight begot, Then all proceeded from the great united–What? Something, the general attribute of all, Severed from thee, its sole original, Into thy boundless self must undistinguished fall. … French truth, Dutch prowess, British policy, Hibernian learning, Scotch civility, Spaniard’s dispatch, Dane’s wit are mainly seen in thee. The great man’s gratitude to his best friend, King’s promises, whore’s vows, towards thee they bend, Flow swiftly into thee, and in thee never end. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/11 "2008-04-10T20:36:43Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Nothing is the absense of something. [/QUOTE] No, the absence of something could be the presence of something else. True nothingness is the absence of \*\*\*anything \*\*\*(or _ **any thing** _). Of course then we have to define “thing.” ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/12 "2008-04-10T20:39:21Z")
I thought that empty space != nothing. Where are the physicists when you need them? Thanks for your help, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/13 "2008-04-10T20:40:48Z")
Nothing is a lack of something, but one that is a kind of something in its own right, existentially speaking. If you go to a café to meet Pierre, and Pierre is not there, you are in the presence of the absence of Pierre. It’s a matter of a conflict between our expectations of the world and the actual world. This makes Jean-Paul Sartre freak out. The difference between existentialists and analytical philosophers on the point of nothing is that whereas the former are afraid of Nothing, the latter think that there is nothing to be afraid of. (With thanks to Simon Blackburn.) ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/14 "2008-04-11T01:09:06Z")
American Heritage dictionary says “Something that has no existence.” ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/15 "2008-04-11T01:27:04Z")
Nobody knows. ‘I see nobody on the road,’ said Alice. ‘I only wish _I_ had such eyes,’ the King remarked in a fretful tone. ‘To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it’s as much as _I_ can do to see real people, by this light!’ – Lewis Carroll, _[Through the Looking Glass](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12)_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/16 "2008-04-11T01:33:43Z")
> [@](#): > > “Nothing will come of nothing” > Bill the Quill, _King Lear_ So it must be self generating ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/17 "2008-04-11T01:51:31Z")
Zero- a number which means “nothing”. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/18 "2008-04-11T01:58:33Z")
**FatBaldGuy** gave it true. No. Thing. Just like ‘something’ is Some Thing. Nothing is not a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/19 "2008-04-11T02:04:03Z")
Given that this issue is more a matter of semantics than actual facts, I think this is better served in GD than GQ. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763/20 "2008-04-11T02:14:04Z")
[Is Nothing Sacred?!](http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Sacred-Gahan-Wilson/dp/0312437072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207879941&sr=8-1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-is/444763.md?page=2)