Nothing: A Philosophical History

Nothing: A Philosophical History – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780199742837,0199742839,9780199912322, 0199912327

Product detail:

• ISBN 10:  0199912327
• ISBN 13: 9780199912322
• Author: Roy Sorensen

An entertaining history of the idea of nothing – including absences, omissions, and shadows – from the Ancient Greeks through the 20th centuryHow 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.

Table of contents:

1. 1. The Makapansgat Hominid: Picturing Absence
2. 2. Hermes Trismegistus: Writing Out Absences
3. 3. Lao-tzu: Absence of Action
4. 4. Buddha: Absence of Wholes
5. 5. Nagarjuna: Absence of Ground
6. 6. Parmenides: Absence of Absence
7. 7. Anaxagoras: Absence of Total Absences
8. 8. Leucippus: Local Absolute Absences
9. 9. Plato: Shades of Absence
10. 10. Aristotle: Potential Absence
11. 11. Lucretius: Your Future Infinite Absence
12. 12. Saint Katherine of Alexandria: The Absence of Nonexistent Women Philosophers
13. 13. Augustine: The Evil of Absence Is an Absence of Evil
14. 14. Fridugisus: Synesthesia and Absences
15. 15. Maimonides: The Divination of Absence
16. 16. Bradwardine: Absence of Determination
17. 17. Newton: A Safe Space for Absence
18. 18. Leibniz: Absence of Contradiction
19. 19. Schopenhauer: Absence of Meaning
20. 20. Bergson: The Evolution of Absence
21. 21. Sartre: Absence Perceived
22. 22. Bertrand Russell: Absence of Referents

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