About Nothing

Abstract

The possibilities are explored of considering nothing as the intended object of thoughts that are literally about the concept of nothing(ness) first, and thereby of nothing(ness). Nothing(ness), on the proposed analysis, turns out to be nothing other than the property of being an intendable object. There are propositions that look to be both true and to be about nothing in the sense of being about the concept and ultimate intended object of what is here formally defined and designated as N-nothing(ness). We have been thinking about it already in reading and understanding the meaning of this abstract. Nothing nothings, we shall assert in all seriousness and with a definite formally definable literal meaning. The concept of N-nothing(ness) in that sense is a concept with identity conditions like that of any entity, the difference being that the concept of N-nothing(ness) is a nonentity and nonexistent intended object.