Nothing is no thing, denoting the absence of something. Nothing is a pronoun associated with nothingness, is also an adjective, and an object as a concept in the Frege-Church ontology.

In nontechnical uses, nothing denotes things lacking importance, interest, value, relevance, or significance. ''Nothingness'' is the state of being nothing, the state of nonexistence of anything, or the property of having nothing between their legs.

Philosophy

Western philosophy

Some would consider the study of "nothing" to be foolish, \ a typical response of this type is voiced by Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) in conversation with his landlord, one Dr. Gozzi, who also happens to be a priest,

However, "nothingness" has been treated as a serious subject worthy of research for a very long time. In philosophy, to avoid linguistic traps over the meaning of "nothing", a phrase such as ''not-being'' is often employed to unambiguously make clear what is being discussed.

Parmenides

One of the earliest western philosophers to consider nothing as a concept was Parmenides (5th century BC) who was a Greek philosopher of the monist school. He argued that "nothing" cannot exist by the following line of reasoning. To speak of a thing, one has to speak of a thing that exists. Since we can speak of a thing in the past, it must still exist (in some sense) now and from this concludes that there is no such thing as change. As a corollary, there can be no such things as ''coming-into-being'', ''passing-out-of-being'' or ''not-being''.

Despite the fact of existence stubbornly refuting Parmenides' conclusion, he was taken seriously by other philosophers, influencing, for instance, Socrates and Plato. Aristotle too, gives Parmenides serious consideration but concludes; "Although these opinions seem to follow logically in a dialectical discussion, yet to believe them seems next door to madness when one considers the facts."

Leucippus

Leucippus (early 5th century BC), one of the atomists, along with other philosophers of his time, made attempts to reconcile this with the everyday observation of motion and change. He accepted the monist position that there could be no motion without a void. The void is the opposite of being, it is ''not-being''. On the other hand, a thing that exists is an absolute plenum and there can be no motion in a plenum because it is completely full. But there is not one monolithic plenum, existence consists of a multiplicity of plenums. These are the invisibly small atoms of the atomists theory, later expanded more fully by Democritus (circa 460 BC – 370 BC). They are a necessary part of the theory in order to allow the void to exist between them. In this scenario macroscopic objects can ''come-into-being'' move through space and pass into ''not-being'' by means of the coming together and moving apart of their constituent atoms. The void must exist in order to allow this to happen or else the frozen world of Parmenides must be accepted.

Bertrand Russell points out that this does not exactly defeat the argument of Parmenides, but rather ignores it by taking the rather modern scientific position of starting with the observed data (motion etc.) and constructing a theory based on the data as opposed to Parmenides attempts to work from pure logic. Russell also observes that both sides were mistaken in believing that there can be no motion in a plenum, but arguably motion cannot ''start'' in a plenum. Cyril Bailey notes that Leucippus is the first to say that a thing (the void) might be real without being a body and points out the irony that this comes from a materialistic atomist. Leucippus is therefore the first to say that "nothing" has a reality attached to it.

Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BC) provided the classic escape from the logical problem posed by Parmenides by distinguishing things that are ''matter'' and things that are ''space''. In this scenario, space is not "nothing", but a receptacle in which objects of matter can be placed. The void (as "nothing") is different from space and is removed from consideration.

This characterisation of space reached its pinnacle with Isaac Newton who asserted the existence of absolute space. Interestingly, modern quantum theory agrees that space is not the void, there is the concept of quantum foam which still exists in the absence of all else, although Albert Einstein's general relativity no longer agrees with Newton's concept of an absolute space. René Descartes, on the other hand, returned to a Parmenides-like argument of denying the existence of space. For Descartes, there was matter, and there was extension of matter leaving no room for the existence of "nothing".

The idea that space can actually be empty was generally still not accepted by philosophers who invoked arguments similar to the plenum reasoning. Although Descartes views on this were challenged by Blaise Pascal, he declined to overturn the traditional belief, commonly stated in the form "Nature abhors a vacuum". This remained so until Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer in 1643 and showed that an empty space appeared if the mercury tube was turned upside down. This phenomenon being known as the Torricelli vacuum and the unit of vacuum pressure, the torr, being named after him. Even Torricelli's teacher, the famous Galileo Galilei had previously been unable to adequately explain the sucking action of a pump.

John the Scot

John the Scot, or Johannes Scotus Eriugena (c. 815–877) held many surprisingly heretical beliefs for the time he lived in for which no action appears ever to have been taken against him. His ideas mostly stem from, or are based on his work of translating pseudo-Dionysius. His beliefs are essentially pantheist and he classifies evil, amongst many other things, into ''not-being''. This is done on the grounds that evil is the opposite of good, a quality of God, but God can have no opposite, since God is everything in the pantheist view of the world. Similarly, the idea that God created the world out of "nothing" is to be interpreted as the "nothing" here is synonymous with God.

G. W. F. Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) is the philosopher who brought the dialectical method to its pinnacle of development. According to Hegel in ''Science of Logic'' the dialectical methods consists of three steps. First, a thesis is given, which can be any postulate in logic. Second, the antithesis of the thesis is formed and finally a synthesis incorporating both thesis and antithesis. Hegel believed that no postulate taken by itself can be completely true. Only the whole can be true and the dialectical synthesis was the means by which the whole could be examined in relation to a specific postulate. Truth consists of the whole process, separating out thesis, antithesis or synthesis as a stand-alone statement results in something that is in some way or other untrue. The concept of "nothing" arises in Hegel right at the beginning of his ''Logic''. The whole is called by Hegel the "Absolute" and is to be viewed as something spiritual. Hegel then has; :*Thesis: The Absolute is Pure Being :*Antithesis: The Absolute is Nothing :*Synthesis: The Absolute is Becoming

Existentialists

The most prominent figure among the existentialists is Jean-Paul Sartre whose ideas in his book ''Being and Nothingness'' are heavily influenced by ''Being and Time'' of Martin Heidegger, although Heidegger later stated that he was misunderstood by Sartre. Sartre defines two kinds of "being" (être). One kind is ''être-en-soi'', the brute existence of things such as a tree. The other kind is ''être-pour-soi'' which is consciousness. Sartre claims that this second kind of being is "nothing" since consciousness cannot be an object of consciousness and can possess no essence. Sartre, and even more so, Jaques Lacan, use this conception of nothing as the foundation of their atheist philosophy. Equating nothingness with being leads to creation from nothing and hence God is no longer needed for there to be existence.

Eastern philosophy

The understanding of 'nothing' varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions. For instance, Śūnyatā (emptiness), unlike "nothingness", is considered to be a state of mind in some forms of Buddhism (see Nirvana, mu, and Bodhi). Achieving 'nothing' as a state of mind in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were consciously thinking. A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase his mind and clear his thoughts in order to better focus on his shot. Some authors have pointed to similarities between the Buddhist conception of nothingness and the ideas of Martin Heidegger and existentialists like Sartre, although this connection has not been explicitly made by the philosophers themselves.

In some Eastern philosophies, the concept of "nothingness" is characterized by an egoless state of being in which one fully realizes one's own small part in the cosmos.

The Kyoto school handles the concept of nothingness as well.

Language and logic

:Alice: ''"I see nothing."'' :Cheshire Cat: ''"My. You have good eyes."''

Grammatically, the word "nothing" is an indefinite pronoun, which means that it refers to something. One might argue that "nothing" is a concept, and since concepts are things, the concept of "nothing" itself is a thing. This logical fallacy is neatly demonstrated by the joke syllogism that contains a fallacy of four terms:

# The Devil is greater than nothing. # Nothing is greater than God. # Therefore, the Devil is greater than God.

The four terms in this example are ''God'', the ''Devil'', ''nothing-as-a-thing'' that the Devil is greater than, and nothing as ''no-thing'' or ''not-some-thing'' (some thing is not greater than God). The error in the conclusion stems from equating ''nothing-as-a-thing'' with ''no-thing'' which is invalid logic.

Clauses can often be restated to avoid the appearance that "nothing" possesses an attribute. For example, the sentence "There is nothing in the basement" can be restated as "There is not one thing in the basement". "Nothing is missing" can be restated as "everything is present". Conversely, many fallacious conclusions follow from treating "nothing" as a noun.

Logician Alonzo Church describes this as all names having both a concept or sense, and a denotation. Church did not consider the name "nothingness", and its denotation.

Modern logic made it possible to articulate these points coherently as intended, and many philosophers hold that the word "nothing" does not function as a noun, as there is no object to which it refers. There remain various opposing views, however—for example, that our understanding of the world rests essentially on noticing absences and lacks as well as presences, and that "nothing" and related words serve to indicate these.

Mathematics

The number zero is sometimes used to denote nothing. The empty set contains no elements.

Computing

In computing, "nothing" can be a keyword (in VB.Net) used in place of something unassigned, a data abstraction. Although a computer's storage hardware always contains numbers, "nothing" symbolizes a number skipped by the system when the programmer desires. Many systems have similar capabilities but different keywords, such as "null", "NUL", "nil", and "None".

To instruct a computer processor to do nothing, a keyword such as "NOP" may be available. This is a control abstraction; running processors are always computing something, if only the identity function.

Physics

In physics, the word ''nothing'' is not used in any technical sense either. A region of space is called a vacuum if it does not contain any matter, though it can contain physical fields. In fact, it is practically impossible to construct a region of space that contains no matter or fields, since gravity cannot be blocked and all objects at a non-zero temperature radiate electromagnetically. However, even if such a region existed, it could still not be referred to as "nothing", since it has properties and a measurable existence as part of the quantum-mechanical vacuum. Where there is supposedly empty space there are constant quantum fluctuations with particles continually in and out of existence.

See also

Absolute zero

Action at a distance

Dark matter

Ex nihilo

Empty

False vacuum

Field

Nada

Mu

Negation (linguistics)

Negative theology

Nihilism

No

Nobody

Nothing comes from nothing

Nowhere

Something

Vacuum

Vacuous truth

Void

Notes

References

Bertrand Russell. ''History of Western Philosophy'', Routledge, 1995 ISBN 0415078547.

Josef Pieper, Berthold Wald, ''For the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of Philosophy'', Translator: Roger Wasserman, Ignatius Press, 2006 ISBN 1586170872.

External links

Category:Existentialist concepts Category:Perception Category:Ontology Category:Value Category:Concepts in metaphysics

ca:No-res da:Intet (begreb) de:Nichts es:Nada eo:Nenio fa:هیچ fr:Néant it:Nulla nl:Niets no:Ingenting pl:Niebyt pt:Nada ksh:Nüüß (wie jaanix) ru:Ничто sr:Ништа fi:Ei-mikään sv:Ingenting tr:Hiçlik yi:גארנישט zh:無

name	Sixpence None the Richer
background	group_or_band
origin	New Braunfels, Texas, U.S.
genre	Pop rock, adult alternative, Christian rock
years active	1992–20042008–present
label	R.E.X. Music (1993–1995)Flying Tart (1995–1996)Squint Entertainment (1997–2001)Reprise Records (2001–2004)Credential Recordings (2009–)
website	http://sixpence-ntr.com
current members	Leigh NashMatt SlocumJustin Cary
past members	Dale Baker Sean Kelly Tess Wiley Rob Mitchell Jerry Dale McFadden J.J. PlasencioJames ArhelgerTJ Behling
notable instruments	}}

Sixpence None the Richer (also known as Sixpence) is an American rock/pop band that formed in New Braunfels, Texas, eventually settling in Nashville, Tennessee. They are best known for their songs "Kiss Me" and "Breathe Your Name" and their covers of "Don't Dream It's Over" and "There She Goes". The name of the band is inspired by a passage from the book ''Mere Christianity'' by C. S. Lewis.

Biography

Origin of the band's name

Leigh Nash described the origin of the band's name on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'': :It comes from a book by C. S. Lewis called ''Mere Christianity''. A little boy asks his father if he can get a sixpence—a very small amount of English currency—to go and get a gift for his father. The father gladly accepts the gift and he's really happy with it, but he also realizes that he's not any richer for the transaction. C.S. Lewis was comparing that to his belief that God has given him, and us, the gifts that we possess, and to serve Him the way we should, we should do it humbly—realizing how we got the gifts in the first place.

Formation and early years (1992–1996)

Guitarist/songwriter Matt Slocum met vocalist Leigh Nash in the early 1990s. They recorded a demo, which now circulates as "The Original Demos", with bassist T.J. Behling and drummer Brad Arnold at Verge Music Works recording studio in Dallas, and eventually an album, ''The Fatherless and the Widow'', for the independent label REX Music in 1993. The record featured Chris Dodds (a member of Love Coma, in which Slocum also played guitar). Shortly after the release of ''The Fatherless and the Widow'', Slocum left Love Coma to pursue Sixpence None the Richer full-time. The band added Tess Wiley (guitar) Joel Bailey (bass) and Dale Baker (drums) to tour in support of ''The Fatherless and The Widow''. On this tour the band toured the US, opening for the Choir, the newly reformed 10,000 Maniacs, Audio Adrenaline, Pray For Rain, Over The Rhine, and more. In the fall of 1994, the band left for their first tour of Europe. The club and festival tour saw them performing with bands such as the Proclaimers, Newsboys, Julie & Buddy Miller, and many more. The band added J.J. Plasencio (bass) for 1995's ''This Beautiful Mess''. Both albums were produced by Armand John Petri, who also managed the band from 1993 to 1997. Shortly after the release of ''This Beautiful Mess'', Wiley left the band.

Into the mainstream (1997–2003)

In 1997, the group signed to Steve Taylor's label Squint Entertainment and released a self-titled album, which slowly began garnering attention from a wider audience in the mainstream industry. Although Placencio played bass on most of the album, he left the band before it was released and was replaced by Justin Cary, who joined the band around the same time as second guitarist Sean Kelly.

In 1998, "Kiss Me" was released as a single, propelling Sixpence None the Richer into the national pop spotlight. That year the song was also featured in the film ''She's All That''. In 2001 the film ''Not Another Teen Movie'' used the song in a parody. "Kiss Me" was also played on the WB teen drama ''Dawson's Creek'' in episodes #2-06 "The Dance" and #2-18 "The Perfect Wedding", and is found on the show's first soundtrack CD, ''Songs from Dawson's Creek'' (Volume 1) and also played at the televised wedding of England's Prince Edward.

In 1999, the band recorded a cover of The La's' "There She Goes", which became their second hit single and propelled them into the limelight again. Sixpence appeared on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'', ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', and numerous morning talk shows. "There She Goes" was added to subsequent pressings of the self-titled album.

In 2000, Sixpence None the Richer contributed the song "Us" to ''Today Presents: the Best of Summer Concert Series'' CD, which raised money for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance. Later that year, the band recorded a Japanese version of "Kiss Me", which was released exclusively in Japan on an EP with numerous versions of the song, as well as remixes of other songs on the self-titled album.

The band had a follow-up album ready to release, but their label Squint Entertainment started to fall apart, leaving the band in limbo for several years. Finally, Squint Entertainment folded and that album, ''Divine Discontent'', was released in October 2002.

Baker left the band before that album's release and was replaced by Rob Mitchell. The album itself differs significantly from the first pre-release version of it that had circulated: the songs "Us", "Deeper", "Don't Pass Me By", "Too Far Gone", "Northern Lights", and "Loser Like Me" were cut, and "Down and Out of Time", "A Million Parachutes", "Tonight", "Waiting on the Sun", and a cover of Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" were added. All of the unreleased songs were eventually featured on singles or compilations, with the exception of "Deeper". Two of ''Divine Discontent'''s singles, "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Breathe Your Name", received significant radio airplay and appeared on various ''Billboard'' charts.

The break-up (2004)

On February 26, 2004, Matt Slocum announced that the group had disbanded. On July 22, 2004, it was reported that Matt Slocum had started a new band, the Astronaut Pushers, with Lindsay Jamieson (of the band Departure Lounge) and Sam Ashworth (son of influential musician Charlie Peacock). John Davis (of the band Superdrag) joined the band in 2005. The Astronaut Pushers released a self-titled, four-song EP on their own label, Runway Network, in 2005. Sam Ashworth reported via MySpace that he and Slocum had acquired and were operating a recording studio in Nashville in early 2006.

Leigh Nash solo work (2005–2007)

Leigh Nash began work on a solo album titled ''Blue On Blue'' with producer Pierre Marchand in the fall of 2005. Nash's first single "My Idea of Heaven" was released on July 14, 2006. The album ''Blue On Blue'' was released by Nettwerk Records under Nash's own imprint, One Son Records and the album's official release date was August 15, 2006, she also released a Christmas EP ''Wishing For This'' on 14 November 2006. The song "Ocean Size Love" from ''Blue On Blue'' seems to be the second single of ''Blue On Blue'', and yet was never promoted.

In 2007, Leigh Nash worked a collaboration with Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Delerium called ''Fauxliage''. Leigh contributed her vocals to the songs "All the World", "Some Day the Wind", "Draw My Life", "Let It Go", "Without You", "Rafe" and "All Alone". The songs "Let It Go" and "All the World" were used in the drama series ''Moonlight''.

Reunion (2007)

In November 2007, Sixpence None the Richer reunited. They released an EP My Dear Machine on the website NoiseTrade in 2008, the band's first official release since ''The Best of Sixpence None the Richer'' in 2004. The EP was removed from NoiseTrade in early 2009.

In October 2008, they released a Christmas album titled ''The Dawn of Grace''. Nash commented, "Sixpence fans have been asking for a Christmas album for as long as I can remember. It was something we always wanted to do, but somehow time got away from us. Now that we are back together, we thought a Christmas album would be a nice gift for our long-time supporters. We love it and hope they will too!"

In December 2008 Sixpence joined the "Love Came Down at Christmas Tour" to play songs from ''The Dawn of Grace'', along with Jars of Clay, Leeland and Sara Groves.

''Strange Conversation'' (2009–present)

Sixpence signed to Credential Recordings and played a headline slot at the 2009 Greenbelt Festival in the UK. According to Leigh Nash, the band began recording a new album in January 2010. The album, ''Strange Conversation'', was originally slated for an August 24, 2010 release. It was later changed to March 8, 2011, but record label troubles have delayed the release. As of April 12, 2011, Nash shared that issues with the label have been resolved and the album will be released.

New recordings of the songs "Failure" and "Safety Line" were released as streaming audio on the band's Facebook page in July 2011.

Band members

Current members

Matt Slocum – guitar, cello

Leigh Nash – vocals

Justin Cary – bass (1997–2004, 2008–)

Jason Lehning — drums (2008–)

Former members

TJ Behling – bass (1990–1994)

Brad Arnold – drums (1990–1994)

James Arhelger – bass (1994–1995)

Joel Bailey – bass (1994–1995)

Dale Baker – drums (1995–2001)

Tess Wiley – guitar (1995–1996) also in Sixpence None the Richer 2008 European Tour

J.J. Plasencio – bass (1995–1996)

Sean Kelly – guitar (1997–2004)

Rob Mitchell – drums (2001–2004)

Jerry Dale McFadden – keyboard (2001–2004)

Discography

Studio albums

1992: ''The Original Demos''

1994: ''The Fatherless and the Widow''

1995: ''This Beautiful Mess''

1997: ''Sixpence None the Richer''

2002: ''Divine Discontent''

2008: ''The Dawn of Grace''

2011: ''Strange Conversation''

References

External links

Official Site (MySpace page)

Category:American pop music groups Category:Christian rock groups from Texas Category:Musical groups established in 1992 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2004 Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2008 Category:Musical groups from Nashville, Tennessee

da:Sixpence None the Richer de:Sixpence None the Richer es:Sixpence None the Richer fr:Sixpence None the Richer it:Sixpence None the Richer he:Sixpence None the Richer ja:シックスペンス・ノン・ザ・リッチャー pl:Sixpence None the Richer pt:Sixpence None the Richer ru:Sixpence None the Richer fi:Sixpence None the Richer sv:Sixpence None the Richer tr:Sixpence None the Richer zh:蓮兒與啷噹六便士

name	The Lonely Hearts
background	group_or_band
origin	Nashville, Tennessee USA
genre	Rock, rock and roll, blues, country, R&B;
years active	2006–present
label	Tooth and Nail Records(formerly)
associated acts	Holland, Somerset, The Coal Men
website	Myspace
current members	Will HollandJosiah HollandJeremy BranonJoey SanchezDave ColemenEthan Luck
past members	Jonathan Todryk "Yogi" WattsStephen BarlowTaylor Muse }}

The Lonely Hearts are an Americana/rock band from Nashville, Tennessee.

Biography

The Lonely Hearts were formed in 2003 in Nashville, TN by brothers Will and Josiah Holland. They have released one full length album, Paper Tapes.

History

The Lonely Hearts started as a four piece while living in Nashville. The Holland brothers are the only remaining original members. They released Paper Tapes through Tooth & Nail on March 7, 2006, but are currently independent. Recently they have recorded demos with Ethan Luck for a new album at Rebel Waltz Recording Co. in Franklin and East Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to The Lonely Hearts, they were called Holland, and released an album called 'Photographs and Tidal Waves' on Tooth and Nail. Before that they were called Somerset.

Discography

Albums

''Paper Tapes'' 7 March 2006

Members

Will Holland - vocals/guitar

Josiah Holland - vocals/keyboards/accordion

Jeremy Branon - bass

Joey Sanchez - drums

Dave Colemen - vocals/guitar

Ethan Luck (Fill In) - vocals/guitar/lap steel

Former members

Jonathan Todryk (The Glorious Unseen)

Timothy "Yogi" Watts (Demon Hunter)

Stephen Barlow (NewSpring Church)

Taylor Muse (Quiet Company)

External links

The Lonely Hearts official myspace page

Tooth & Nail Records official Lonely Hearts Bio

[ Lonely Hearts at Allmusic.com]

Category:Musical groups from Nashville, Tennessee