The short history of Nothingness
The concept of nothingness has spanned the ages, from antiquity to the present day in Western philosophy. It is conceived as absolute nullity, the absence of being. French philosopher Jean Wahl sets out three possibilities for nothingness :
- nothingness is not, because the absence of everything is nothingness, so nothingness is also absent from its own enunciation. Nothingness is self-annulling.
- nothingness is something; nothingness allows matter to emerge from it, and there is a successive passage from nothingness to being and back again.
- nothingness is, it is no longer separated from being as before, but is a component of being. It is because we are drawn into nothingness that we are here.
The concept of nothingness first appeared in other cultures at other times. 3000 years ago, the concept of "shunyata" appeared in the Vedic texts, India's earliest literary works. It is associated with a state of consciousness. Around 2,600 years ago, Taoism also opposed the concept of nothingness called "wu" to the concept of being called "you". Some of these cultures therefore take a more experimental approach to nothingness, rather than approaching it intellectually. It's about experiencing it, rather than understanding it abstractly. More recently, contemporary Buddhism emphasizes nothingness as a means of understanding the interdependence of all phenomena and transcending the illusions of independent existence.
2500 years
Date of appearance of nothingness in writing.
XIth century
Concept of nothingness became central to Mahayana Buddhism.
1927
Year of publication of Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time"
1943
Year of publication of "L'Être et le Néant" by Jean-Paul Sartre
Formal appearance of the concept of nothingness simultaneously in Greek philosophy, Hindu tradition and Taoist thought
Plato and Aristotle develop the concept of nothingness
Thomas Aquinas puts forward five proofs for the existence of God, which indirectly involve the concept of nothingness as a contrast to being.
Kant distinguishes four forms of nothingness in Critique of Pure Reason.
Hegel maintains that being and nothingness are dialectically linked, and that their interaction is fundamental to the understanding of reality.
The meaning of nothingness is explored through the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger.
In the 21st century, philosophers continue to evolve the concept. A German philosopher like Franz Rosenzweig sees nothingness as a background against which the particularity and novelty of elements can be safeguarded.