2

Is or was there a philosophy which examines a hypothesis that in fact nothing "exists" except maybe questions?

I know there are philosophies that state that reality is a simulation etc. but I mean that not even a simulation exists. The only "things" that exist are the questions we ask.

CC BY-SA 3.0
8

5 Answers 5

4

I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned before, at least not explicitly (it was implicitly pointed out in one of the comments, as this view is considered to be nihilistic):

Nothing exists; even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and even if something can be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others.” - Gorgias

One must be careful though:

This argument has led some to label Gorgias as either an ontological skeptic or a nihilist (one who believes nothing exists, or that the world is incomprehensible, and that the concept of truth is fictitious). But it can also be interpreted as an assertion that it is logos and logos alone which is the proper object of our inquiries, since it is the only thing we can really know. On Nature is sometimes seen as a refutation of pre-Socratic essentialist philosophy (McComiskey 37). (source: IEP)

As many have said before me here, I think the question is self-defeating. You have the thought (i.e. it exists) to ask yourself whether there is a philosophy that asks whether nothing exist. The existence of the thought means that something exists and would famously give rise to Descartes' new foundation of all knowledge.

CC BY-SA 3.0
3

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.

– Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell Translation

I may have misunderstood it. I'm talking about philosophy where nothingness has a central role.

CC BY-SA 3.0
0

The statement "X exists" is meaningless without first defining "existence".

For nothing to "exist", that would mean that you and everything you know falls outside of "existence".

Any definition of the word "existence" where everything you know would not "exist" would be a rather absurd and meaningless definition, however.

I can't think of any philosophical movement that uses such an meaningless definition of "existence". However, there are philosophical movements who believe that everything that does exist is inherently absurd and void of meaning.

Examples of such movements would be Existentialists and Discordians in the West and the absurdist schools of Taoism & Zen in the East!

CC BY-SA 3.0
7
  • I feel you're judging Taoism and Zen on the basis of not understanding their definition of existence. These people are not fools.
    – user20253
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 19:08
  • @PeterJ : I'm not arguing they are fools. Quite the contrary, actually! I consider myself an existentialist and strongly relate with the existential relativism so common in Eastern schools and so very lacking in most Western schools of thought. So, instead of mocking Taoism and Zen, I guess I'm recommending them! Anyway, where would you say I'm misinterpreting Taoism and Zen? Commented Aug 6, 2017 at 11:33
  • Pardon me. I may have been heavy-handed. Taoism and Zen do not state 'everything that does exist is inherently absurd and devoid of meaning'. They state that for an ultimate analysis nothing really exists, albeit that what seems to exist is meaningful and a part of reality. For a fundamental analysis they must be reduced. Our usual idea of existence would be wrong - hence we find it logically absurd and cannot explain it. (Cf. the doctrine of dependent-existence). What is real would be independent and would transcend the existence/non-existence distinction.
    – user20253
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 12:09
  • @PeterJ : "According to both Zen and Taoism, the attempted control of nature by man is at once absurd and useless" → artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/lieberman/zen.html Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 16:44
  • I'm not sure why this comment is relevant. Both Zen and Taoism advocate abandoning the hubris that leads us to try and control the world.
    – user20253
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 11:05
0

In the second century BCE Nagarjuna proved that nothing really exists and nothing ever really happens. This is the claim of Middle Way Buddhism and phrased in one way or another is the claim of the Perennial philosophy.

This is not nihilism but the claim that all division and distinction is unreal or reducible in metaphysics. To exist is to 'stand out', thus for something to exist there must be a background from which it stands out. This is two things, and a fundamental theory must reduce them.As Schrodinger points out, as well as what appears to exist there is the 'canvas on which they are painted'.

For the mystic the world reduces to the 'I Am' of pure awareness, which is rather like Kant's 'thing-in-itself'. This would transcend the distinction between existence and non-existence such that we cannot say it exclusively exists or does not. Hence the qualifier 'really' in 'nothing really exists'. This explains Heraclitus' curious statement 'We are and are-not'.

The logical impossibility of explaining why there is anything at all undermines the very idea that there is anything at all. Once we reify even one thing we cannot solve the metaphysical problems that arise, and this should tell us something.

CC BY-SA 3.0
0

That nothing exists is posited in medieval ontology

In this attempt mysticism arrives at a peculiar speculation, peculiar because it transforms the idea of essence in general, which is an ontological determination of a being, the essentia entis, into a being and makes the ontological ground of a being, its possibility, its essence, into what is properly actual.

This mystical theology appears to be saying, (amongst other things), that the essence of nothing does not require production to become actual. For example, whereas the concept (res essentia) of any other thing, such as a table, requires the making of the thing to become an actual thing (res existentia), 'nothing' does not require anything further to reify its concept. It uniquely qualifies as actual nothing by itself.

CC BY-SA 4.0
5
  • Interesting point about 'Nothing' and I hadn't though of it myself. The ontological claim would be that all that exists is created, and all that is created has no independent existence but depends on what is truly real. The word 'God' may be used for this 'Nothing' that lies beyond all diversity, but this language would be optional. It would be impossible for there to ever be a true Nothing, but the Nothing of mysticism is also Everything, Roughly speaking, Everything would be Nothing but Nothing would not be Nothing.
    – user20253
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 19:04
  • I think you have misunderstood something: the Nothing of mysticism Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 23:31
  • Degen - Perhaps you're right but I'd take some convincing. Check out Nagarjuna's proof that nothing really exists or ever happens.
    – user20253
    Commented Sep 2, 2017 at 13:15
  • @PeterJ You mean Nagarjuna thinks it's all just cosmic debris? In contrast the Thomists are addressing the concept of nothing as a kind of empty set: the base concept before any predicates are added, such as colour, purpose or composition. Then, in effect, the mystics seem to say that, uniquely, Nothing does not require production to properly exist. Interesting to try to fuse this with Nagarjuna's debris of obliteration, but it seems clear that the debris does materially exist, even if it means nothing, (which I presume is what Nagarjuna is driving at). Commented Sep 2, 2017 at 13:55
  • Nagarjuna is not at odds with the Thomists. He proves that there is no 'cosmic debris'. The world of multiplicity would reduce to Unity. There would be no material existence. This is a metaphysical or fundamental view and does not deny the evidence of our senses. Rather, it denies our usual interpretation of this evidence. It would not imply that existence is meaningless but that it is not fundamental or truly real, such that its meaning derives from what is fundamental.and truly real. In this way he solves all metaphysical problems.
    – user20253
    Commented Sep 3, 2017 at 11:12

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.