Nothing

Roy Sorensen is the author of eight books: Blindspots, Thought Experiments, Pseudo-Problems, A Brief History of the Paradox, Vagueness and Contradiction, Seeing Dark Things, and A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities. Prior to joining the UT Austin faculty in 2019, he taught at University of Delaware, New York University, Dartmouth College, and Washington University in St. Louis. Starting in 2020, he will be a Professorial Fellow at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

Introduction

Nothing Represented
1 The Makapansgat Hominid: Pictorial Absence
2 Hermetes Trismegistus: Discursive Absence

Relative Nothing
3 Lao Tzu: Absence of Action
4 Buddha: Absence of Wholes
5 Nagarjuna: Absence of Ground

Absolute Nothing
6 Parmenides: Absence of Absence
7 Anaxagoras: Absence of Total Absences
8 Leucippus: Local Absolute Absences

Potential Nothing
9 Plato: Shades of Absence
10 Aristotle: Potential Absence meets Absence of Potential
11 Lucretius: Your Future Infinite Absence

Divine Nothing
12 Saint Katherine of Alexandria: Absence of Non-existent Women Philosophers
13 Augustine: The Evil of Absence is an Absence of Evil
14 Fridugisus: Synesthesia and Absences
15 Maimonides: The Divination of Absence

Scientific Nothing
16 Bradwardine: Absence of Determination
17 Newton: A Safe Space for Absence
18 Leibniz: Absence of Contradiction

Secular Nothing
19 Schopenhauer: Absence of Meaning
20 Bergson: The Evolution Absence
21 Sartre: Absence Perceived
22 Bertrand Russell: Absence of Referents

References