無: Paradox and Emptiness

Graham Priest

doi:10.4312/as.2025.13.2.13-27

Authors

Graham Priest Departments of Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center, University of Melbourne, Ruhr University of Bochum

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.2.13-27

Keywords:

Nothing(ness), śūnyata, Buddhism, Nāgārjuna, Nishida, mereology

Abstract

Nothingness is a tantalizing concept. It appears in the thinking of many major philosophers—East and West—where it plays a profound role in their thinking concerning the nature of the world (that is, the beings that constitute it). However, nothingness is implicated in contradiction and paradox right from the start. It is something and, well, nothing. This essay has three themes. The first is the role of nothingness in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy. The second is the paradoxical nature of nothingness. The third is a mereological account of the nature of nothingness which does justice to the paradox. Though the themes are distinct, they are interconnected in important ways, as the essay will show.

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References

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