[lit-ideas] Re: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 18:00:39 +0100 (BST)
>Popperian answer:
Possibly: "There is something rather than nothing" is irrefutable.>
The Popperian (and logical) answer is not so straightforward.
Anything (apart from nothing) may be taken to falsify that 'there is merely
nothing', and simultaneously to confirm that there is something. If 'there is
nothing' may be testable and falsified, its negation may be testable and
'verified': 'there is nothing at space-time x' may be falsified by there being
something observed at space-time x, and that observation also shows that 'there
is something' is true - given that from 'there is something at space-time x' we
may deduce that 'there is something'.
So "There is something rather than nothing" may not be irrefutable but may be
something that passes empirical tests because it is deducibly true from an
empirically falsifiable statement such as "There is something rather than
nothing at space-time x" (or a more specific version such as "There is a black
swan, rather than nothing, at space-time x").
What is true is that an unrestricted existential statement such as "There
exists something", and its counterpart "There exists nothing", cannot in
themselves be falsified, they can only be verified (verified, as above, by
whatever verifies a restricted existential statement from which the truth of
the unrestricted existential statement may be deduced).
These statements must be distinguished from the claims "All that exists is
something (i.e. there is no nothing)" and "All that exists is nothing (there is
no something)": for "There exists something" does not assert that "All that
exists, or that is the case, is something" but merely that among what is the
case is at least one something (the rest of what is the case may be nothing).
That there is 'at least one something or other' cannot be falsified, for no
matter how many nothings we find (without finding something) this would not
falsify that somewhere else there is something. Conversely, no matter how many
'somethings' we find would not falsify that somewhere else there is a point in
space-time where "There is nothing".
It is a logical confusion to take "There is nothing" to mean "All that is the
case is nothing (i.e. there is no something)" - rather this last claim is
equivalent to "There is only nothing" or "There is nothing except nothing". So
"There is nothing" has as its negation that "There is only something", for
"There is something" and "There is nothing" do not themselves contradict, being
both compatible with there being 'something' at some somewheres and 'nothing'
at some elsewheres.
As to why the universe is a something rather than a mere nothing, this is a
separate question. Which I'll answer later.
Donal
Head hurts
London
On Friday, 16 May 2014, 14:46, "dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In a message dated 5/16/2014 9:25:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
torgeir_fjeld@xxxxxxxx writes:
why there’s Something rather than Nothing?"
"Why is there something rather than nothing?
Well, why not? Why expect nothing rather than something? No experiment
could support the hypothesis ‘There is nothing’ because any observation
obviously implies the existence of an observer."
----- Sorensen, Roy, "Nothingness", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/nothingness/>.
Popperian answer:
Possibly: "There is something rather than nothing" is irrefutable.
Griceian answer:
"There is something" is usually conversationally incomplete: cfr. "There is
something (or other) in the fridge" -- implicating: "There _must_ be
something (or other) in the fridge, no?"
Cheers,
Speranza
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