Psychology and Nothing

Abstract

In its various forms nothing has cap? tured the attention of scie tists, s hol? ars and eccentrics for centuries. Early Greek cosmologists argued about whether there is really empty space around us. Other thinkers wondered whether the world was created out of nothing, something or even prope nihil?almost nothing. Innumerable treatises have been written on physical voids and vacuums, and mathematical topologists often consider the empty areas, the holes, in objects to be more important than their shapes. Some philosophers have proclaimed that understanding why something ex? ists rather than nothing is the deepest issue a thinker could possibly confront; others have ridiculed the topic as be? wildering, childish or impossible to re? solve. Musicians, poets, artists, archi? tects and dancers frequently remark on the crucial aesthetic functions of gaps, pauses, open spaces and rests between notes, phrases, objects or movements. Literary critics use empti? ness, apathy and moral voids to char acterize the dominant themes of par? ticular writers or time periods and cul? tural settings. Some Eastern religions foster the attainment of absolute noth?