John Dunn

One nothing

We all know what nothing is, but only if it is a qualified nothing.

There is nothing …in this box
There is nothing …in this room
There is nothing …between you and me
I searched for gold and found nothing.

In these instances, nothing is delimited by a qualification.

We know there is oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the box, but the qualification denotes the nothingness to be agreed upon.

We know that the prospector might have dug up a pile of sand and dirt in the search for gold, but we know what nothing means because of the qualification.

Nothing is actually nothing plus qualifier.

Can there be nothing without qualification?

Can there be unbounded nothingness, or infinite nothingness?

Let us suppose the answer is yes; there can be unbounded nothingness.

However, would not that state, that everlasting equilibrium, be a single nothingness, an all-embracing oneness?

We have the paradox of one equaling nothing.

You might say that before the beginning there was not nothing, but rather there was one.

© John Dunn.