Does the void exist?
One of the main controversies in Pre-socratic philosophy is the dispute of the existence or non-existence of the void. Two groups of philosophers argue this idea. The first group, namely Parmenides, argues that the void does not exist. This is the opinion of the Monist philosophers. The other group is the atomists who argue this thesis and believe there is a void. This group is primarily represented by the philosophers, Democritus and Leucippus.
Parmenides argues against the existence of the void. The plenum fragment states his opinion quite clearly:
"Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike; nor is there more here and less there, which would prevent it from holding together, but it is full of what is. So it is all continuous, for what is clings close to what is."
This shows the idea, that if there would be a void or an empty space then "what is" would move into it. Hence, there is no void. Because "what is" fills up this space completely. "Since it is all alike" volume or density is continuous everywhere. Since it is not divisible there is no void between "what is". Also "what is" itself has no void in it. If there were void or space in one object, compared to a more denser object these particles would not "...
It is evident that things do not come to exist out of just anything; each comes into being out of particular things—fruit from the tree, tree from the seed, seed from the fruit; bird from the egg, egg from the bird. It cannot be, therefore, that things come to exist out of nothing, out of what is not, for were that so, things could come to be out of anything. I am not convinced: yes, it is evident that some kinds of things have again and again come into being out of particular things; so, we might well argue that these things do not come into being out of nothing. But is it evident that all things are alike in this? Perhaps some things do come into existence out of nothing: the possibility still pesters physicists today. It is supposed necessary by the Epicureans that particular conditions of generation correspond with particular kinds of things, and that all things of every kind are alike in this—not a ridiculous supposition, but surely not evident. This, I should want to add, is not an ‘implicit appeal to the principle of sufficient reason’, for that would entail questions about what function corresponds to the conditions of generation—what function has the egg if not the generation of a bird? We might answer that eggs are a function of animal nutrition ...
For those Pre-Socratics who picked not to join the Eleatic camp, the new test was to accommodate Parmenides' thoroughly contended dismissal of progress and assortment with the clearly changing and fluctuated universe of sense experience. Dissimilar to the Eleatics, these philosophers, the pluralists, were not arranged to surrender
Baird and Kaufmann, the editors of our text, explain in their outline of Descartes' epistemology that the method by which the thinker carried out his philosophical work involved first discovering and being sure of a certainty, and then, from that certainty, reasoning what else it meant one could be sure of. He would admit nothing without being absolutely satisfied on his own (i.e., without being told so by others) that it was incontrovertible truth. This system was unique, according to the editors, in part because Descartes was not afraid to face doubt. Despite the fact that it was precisely doubt of which he was endeavoring to rid himself, he nonetheless allowed it the full reign it deserved and demanded over his intellectual labors. "Although uncertainty and doubt were the enemies," say Baird and Kaufmann (p.16), "Descartes hit upon the idea of using doubt as a tool or as a weapon. . . . He would use doubt as an acid to pour over every 'truth' to see if there was anything that could not be dissolved . . . ." This test, they explain, resulted for Descartes in the conclusion that, if he doubted everything in the world there was to doubt, it was still then certain that he was doubting; further, that in order to doubt, he had to exist. His own existence, therefore, was the first truth he could admit to with certainty, and it became the basis for the remainder of his epistemology.
Although their methods and reasoning contrasted one another, both philosophers methodically argued to come to a solid, irrefutable proof of God, which was a subject of great uncertainty and skepticism. Through Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous and Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes and Berkeley paved the way towards an age of confidence and faith in the truth of God’s perfect existence actively influencing the lives of
The word interbeing explains the concept of emptiness through the idea of changeable and interdependent existence. The prefix “inter-” defines the changeable and interdependent nature of things and the verb “to be or being” means existence. According to the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, “Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.” Emptiness does not mean that things do not exist but rather it means that things cannot exist by themselves alone. Thich Nhat Hanh uses an interesting example of paper to explain changeable and interdependent existence of things. Paper cannot exist without the trees from which it is made. Trees cannot exist or grow without rainwater which comes from clouds. Every aspect of existence is interrelated to each other. Paper and trees, trees and rain, rain and clouds are all manifestations of interbeing with each other.
In the second meditation, Descartes is searching for an Archimedian point on which to seed a pearl of certainty. By doubting everything in his first meditation, Descartes consequently doubts his own existence. It is here that a certainty is unearthed: “If I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed”(17). However, Descartes “does not deduce existence from thought by means of syllogism, but recognizes it as something self-evident by a simple intuition of the mind,” or in other words, by natural light (Second Replies:68).
We are asked first to comprehend "Infinity," and then to whatever "infinity" "beholds" in not everything but "nothing," and that "nothing" itself to become the building material for "all” (1-2). Identifying the paradox, perhaps, as that which begins the Biblical account of the Creation.
is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies." Then he goes on to say that
One of the ways in which Descartes attempts to prove that the mind is distinct from the body is through his claim that the mind occupies no physical space and is an entity with which people think, while the body is a physical entity and cannot serve as a mechanism for thought. [1]
Socrates is easily one of the most well known names in the history of philosophy. He is even portrayed via the magic of Hollywood time travel in the popular movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and was more recently quoted inaccurately on a t-shirt as saying, “I drank what?” Despite his fame, Socrates was not the first philosopher by far, and certainly not the earliest to make meaningful contributions to the field of philosophy. Some of the great “Pre-Socratics” include Anaximenes, Parmenides, Xenophane, and Democritus. The philosophical issues of their days were significantly different from the popular discussions today, though no less relevant, and provide ample fodder for the cannon of philosophical consideration. The issues in consideration here that may benefit from discussion are the problem of the one and the many, the distinction between phusis and nomos as regards the nature of god(s), and distinction between appearance and reality. Appropriate and thorough discussion of these topics in the pre-Socratic context is certain to yield insight into the connection between these three issues.
Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.
On the Nature of the Universe Since their inception in the 17th century, the modern sciences have been given over to a majestic vision: there is nothing in nature but atoms and the void. This is hardly a new thought, of course; in the ancient world, it received its most memorable expression in Lucretius' On the Nature of Universe. Lucretius Carus wrote an Epicurean work entitled De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things); from all indications, he was faithful to Epicurus' system, changing nothing. History tells us very little of Titus Lucretius Carus, but one can see from reading his work that he has a sturdy abhor towards religious superstition, which he claims is the root of human fear and in turn the cause of impious acts. Although he does not deny the existence of a god, his work is aimed at proving that the world is not guided or controlled by a divinity. Lucretius proceeds with an extended explanation and proof of the materiality and mortality of the mind and soul. This explanation culminates in the climactic declaration, "Nil igitur mors est ad nos. . ." ("Therefore death is nothing to us."), a stark, simple statement which effectively epitomizes the main message and central doctrine of Epicureanism. Sterling Dow, "Dealing with Festschriften" in Articles on Antiquity in Festschriften, compiled by Dorothy Rounds, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962, p. 556. According to Lucretius, Sensations are irrefutable because they are necessary effects of known causes, the efflux of atoms from external objects; sensations can only originate when these thin replicas produce movement in the mind. Lucretius asserts that matter exists in the form of atoms, which move around the universe in an empty space. This empty space, or vacuit...
Why? Because there is no name whatever without an object (nama hinirvastukam kimcid api nasti). Thus since the name exists (namasadbhavat), there is an intrinsic nature of the things; and since they have an intrinsic nature, all things are non-void (asunya). (1)
Finiteness is also implied in a series of relationships in the physical world : containment, reduction, stoppage. But, these, of course, are, again, wrong intuitions. They are at least as wrong as the intuitive connection between boundaries and finiteness.
“in order to think, it is necessary to exist, I judged that I could take as a general rule that the things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true, but that there is merely some difficulty in properly discerning” (Descartes