Nothing - Roy Sorensen

Nothing

A Philosophical History

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
368 Seiten
2022
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-974283-7 (ISBN)
27,40 inkl. MwSt
An entertaining history of the idea of nothing - including absences, omissions, and shadows - from the Ancient Greeks through the 20th century

How can nothing cause something? The absence of something might seem to indicate a null or a void, an emptiness as ineffectual as a shadow. In fact, 'nothing' is one of the most powerful ideas the human mind has ever conceived. This short and entertaining book by Roy Sorensen is a lively tour of the history and philosophy of nothing, explaining how various thinkers throughout history have conceived and grappled with the mysterious power of absence -- and how these ideas about shadows, gaps, and holes have in turned played a very positive role in the development of some of humankind's most important ideas. Filled with Sorensen's characteristically entertaining mix of anecdotes, puzzles, curiosities, and philosophical speculation, the book is ordered chronologically, starting with the Taoists, the Buddhists, and the ancient Greeks, moving forward to the middle ages and the early modern period, then up to the existentialists and present day philosophy. The result is a diverting tour through the history of human thought as seen from a novel and unusual perspective.

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

Erscheinungsdatum
Verlagsort New York
Sprache englisch
Maße 203 x 142 mm
Gewicht 544 g
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik / Ontologie
Mathematik / Informatik Mathematik Allgemeines / Lexika
ISBN-10 0-19-974283-9 / 0199742839
ISBN-13 978-0-19-974283-7 / 9780199742837
Zustand Neuware
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