Nothing

de:Nichts fr:rien nl:niets

Nothing is the lack or absence of anything. "Nothing" and "zero" are closely related but not identical concepts. The term "nothing" is rarely used mathematically, though it could be said that a set contains nothing if and only if it is the empty set, in which case its cardinality (or size) is zero.

The concept of "nothing" has been studied throughout history by philosophers and theologians; many have found that careful consideration of the notion can easily lead to the logical fallacy of reification. The understanding of "nothing" varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions, though existentialism, and in particular Heidegger have brought the understandings closer together.

Informally, a person, event or object might be said to be nothing if particularly unimpressive.

For the mathematics of nothing see: zero.

Quotation

• "Nothing is too wonderful to be true." — Michael Faraday

Related topics

• Being and Nothingness, an existential novel by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Alternative nothings

• Nothing Records is the name of a record label founded by Trent Reznor and John Malm, Jr. in 1992. Among the artists managed by the label are Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Autechre.
• Nothing is the name of a 1995 album by Dwight Yoakam, and a 1996 album by Velocity Girl

See also

• Nihilism
• Vacuous truth

External link

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nothingness/