Why There Could Never Be Nothing | Michael James

Michael James argues that absolute nothingness is impossible because “nothing” is not a thing that could ever exist. Do you think existence is ultimately necessary — or is reality simply a brute fact with no deeper explanation?

I love his statement that nothing cannot exist. It’s simple logic like light is bright… never thought about it like that but he is right. The universe we live in which is all we can observe has nothing absolutely nowhere… everywhere we look is stuff… isn’t there photons flying absolutely everywhere in every direction in every possible vector of space??

I’m no philosopher by any means and not sure if my thinking really goes beyond rhetorical tricks, but the way I’ve thought of it in the past is similar to this explanation. To me, pure absolute nothing is not just the absence of stuff but the absence of any potential whatsoever. And since we know that something does exist, we know there is a potential for something. Therefore nothing cannot exist.

It's only the fact that there is something raises the question

It depends on how you're defining "something" and "nothing." In a sense, the universe is both something and nothing. What we call "nothing" is not truly nothing, but an inertial energy state, while what we call "something" is a higher-energy, more organized state that we can perceive and interact with (matter). Every thing comes from "nothing" and returns to it through continuous cycles of birth, growth, decay, and death—a constant transformation between potentiality and actuality.

Michael james is brilliant and explains this well.

This guy is a absolutely correct. We define what "nothing" is, this puts us at a disadvantage.

I love this way of thinking. What I'd like to eventually see is something in the line of the derivation of the speed of electromagnetism through Maxwell's equations, and realizing they allow for only one speed, which forces relativity, etc... But I'd like to see this sort of deriving through first principles that would allow only for one possible Universe with only one set of laws, and that this Universe has to exist. I'm convinced it is possible and I'm watching relentlessly the progress in physics to see if it eventually happens.

Very good example nothingness is mental concept

Michael James is complete right. Nothing can't exstist because you can't point your finger to it for instance.. So there must always be something. Not being can't be. Nothing is only an expresion of our mind. Just as Michael James says it's mental but not real.