Defining Nothingness

Nothing, Nothingness, Emptiness, Absence, The Empty Set, Zero. Human attempts to grasp nothingness? Or are they independent concepts with or without a common element, A mere common theme perhaps?

Having been contemplating on the concept and the world of nothingness, I devised a way to categorize our nothing-related ideas (or rather confusions) . Our confusions (Maybe calling them ideas is inappropriate, hence i use another term) can be broadly categorized as follows:

1. Nothing can be something called nothingness, NS-Nothing.

2. Nothing can be none-ness, NN-Nothing

NS-Nothing may be conceived as the abstract object nothingness, in which the idea, abstract objects, of the empty set and zero may be derived from. Therefore NS-Nothing is something as it is an abstract object. Therefore, describing the properties or essence of this object would not be a problem, since it is really something. And also maybe, conceiving a universe with only NS-Nothing within it is possible. Hence the metaphysical rhetoric (being distinct from the logical rhetoric) regarding nothingness is basically dealing with NS-Nothing. Metaphysics is the study of being after all. This is Nothingness.

NN-Nothing on the other hand, is a logical device. It is not conceived or grasped, it is used. It is not within the domain of metaphysics, it is within the domain of logic or linguistics. This is the confusion of nothingness that we use in negation and the idea of emptiness or absence. It is this mere none-ness that Alexios Fidei refered to when he talked of nothingness in his reply to my writing on nothingness (A Reply to “Nothing” by Severinus Pseudosolipsist). This is the confusion that we use in logical operations, perhaps wa can call it a logical operator. This is Nothing.

So are the NN-NS distinction a real distinction? Is it even reasonable to differentiate nothing from nothing? Can talking about nothing have any meaning? Are NS-Nothing and NN-nothing in anyway related, or are they independent, or is one derived from the other? These questions are beyond this mere attempt to make thinking about Nothing a little bit clearer, this is only a way in which I structure my ideas and confusions regarding Nothing-Nothingness.