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"Nothing" As "Not-Being": Some Literary Contexts That Bear on Plato and on Parmenides

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Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 8-1977 "Nothing" as "Not-Being": Some Literary Contexts that Bear on Plato and on Parmenides Alexander P.D. Mourelatos University of Texas at Austin, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Mourelatos, Alexander P.D., ""Nothing" as "Not-Being": Some Literary Contexts that Bear on Plato and on Parmenides" (1977). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 230. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/230 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. "Nothing" as "Not-Being": Some Literary Contexts That Bear on Plato and on Parmenides Alexander P. o. Mourelatos The university of Texas at Austin (August 1977) !O It has often been noticed that Plato, and before him Parmenides, 1 assimilates "what is not" C't"O µ� �v) to •nothing" CµY)5&v or o6o&v) Given that the central use of " nothing" has important ties with the exis- tential quantifier ("Nothing is here" = "It is not the case that there is anything here"), it has widely been assumed that contexts that document this assimilation also count as evidence that both within them and in cognate ontological contexts the relevant sense of 11being11 or "to be" is that of existence. That this assumption is not to be granted easily, has been 2 • compellingly argued by G. E. L. owen. His main concern was to show that the assumption is particularly mischievous in the interpretation of the Sophist, where he found it totally unwarranted. My own concern is to attack the assumption on a broader plane. "Nothing" in English has uses that do not depend on a tie with the existential quantifier. So too in cl or d l d xi 1 Greek: in� eh 'ou en can be g osse as •what does not e st , 1 but it can also be glossed as "not a something, " or in owen's fornmlation,•1what is not anything, what not-in-any way is': a subject with all the being knocked out 3 of it and so unidentifiable, no subject." In effect, the assimilation of "what is not• to •nothing" may--in certain contexts-- work in the opposite - -. 2 I di.rection: not from "nothing" to " non""'.being" in the sense of non-existence; rather from "non-being" as negative specification or negative determination To to •nothing" as the extreme of negativity or indeterminacy. convey the sense involved in this reverse assimilation I borrow owen's suggestive translation •not-being" for me �, a rendering which makes use of an in­ complete participle, rather than t.he complete gerund, of the verb "to be." In the main Section of this paper I examine a certain "characterizing" use of meden/ouden and medeis/oudeis in pre-Platonic non-philosophical contexts. The passages discussed and analyzed offer cle.ar and suggestive illustrations of the assimilation of "nothing" or "nobody" to •not-being." In the concluding Section I explore connections between that use and philo­ sophical concepts,with particular reference to Plato's doctrine of degrees of reality. I To make alternatives clear I begin with an exploration of the relevant English uses. The semanti c spectrums of "nothing" and of the personal form •nobody" are, of course, wider than logic books might suggest. Only two uses concern us, and these can be quickly formulated if we take the expres­ sions "nob()dy"and "nothing"as answers to two types of questions. (a) 1. Who is in the house now?--Nobody. 2. What is in the box?--Nothing. (b) 1. Who is the gentle�arl dver there?--Nobody. 2. What is that shape over there?--Nothing. The one-word cu:iswers in exchanges (a) are clearly equivalent to more per­ spicuous expanded paraphrases of the form •There is no ! in !!1" where K can 3 be replaced by an appropriate classifier or natural-kind expression and L can be replaced by a locative word or phrase. This is the use of "nobodytc or "nothing" that is closest to the negative existential quantified ex- pressions in formal logic, "'(3x)Ex For suggestive convenience, in spite of some infelicity--since (a)-type sentences are tensed, whereas the exis­ tential quantifier imports no time implications--! shall call (a) the "exis­ tential" use of "nobody" and •nothing." It is not as easy to give a single perspicuous paraphrase of the one­ word answers in type (b). The respondent may intend to dispute the inter­ rogator's presupposition that there actually is something, let alone a gentleman or a shape, in the region referred to. In that case, the question receives in effect a type (a) answer. A distinct type (b) is defined in the case in which the respondent does not dispute the interrogator's existential presupposition. He says, roughly: "I notice who you are referring to, but he's nobody,• or "I notice what you're referring to, but it's nothing." In that sort of case the respondent intends to convey one of two possible messages: (i) The object (person or thing) referred to is "of no account": it (he or she) lies outside the interlocutors• scope of interests, in what ­ ever way and however broadly these interests are defined by the inter­ locutors' current endeavor. thus the snobbish respondent might say "He's nobody" with reference to someone of inferior status;or "It's nothing" may be the reassuring response of a doctor to a patient concerning certain physical changes in the patient's body they have both observed1 or it might be the response of a laboratory assistant to a student with reference to a speck they can both see through 4 the mii romiop ec or of oAe limteAer at a l eitu re to aAothert rho iA uired ab o ut a p oi A ta d e b g t h e mpeanera A d r h ii hh e fir m tlimteAer mimm e d. Uhe other pommible memmaue im: (ii) U h e obje t ref err e d t o i m A et r e m e l g p o o rtro A o u tto r red ui e d .. .- -1 \ --11 L - ('r - m e iim eA o f t h e n i A di t pr ma fa i ieappearm t o b e . It im e teAmi elg deprired of he Ao mal haraiterimtiim of hat niA d t mo i t i A 'barel g' or 'hardlb e g'iall edta m f o r ex mple i A ex h Auem ( a)A d (b)t a 'ueAtlem A' or a 'mhape.' 'Ae i A mo e aptlg m e n of rhat it 'im Aot' rather th A of rhat 'it im. • IA the limitiAu iamet to bo r r oAe of the defiAitioAm iA oebmter'm hird Ner IAte AatioAal DiitioAa g t it im 'momethiAu hat im iharaiterized bg utter bmeAie of dete AatioA: erfeit iAdimtiAuuimhableAemm.' et me refer to (b) A either of itm o m b-tgpem am the •ihara teriziAu' ume of 'Ao odg' or 'Aoth Au.' hat Aderliem t p e (a)t the eximteAtial umet im a o Aiep tioA of AoA- eiA u am e pt Aemm: I mear h the houme Ad fiAd hat it im rai At: or I o eA the box Ad fiAd hat it im emptg. hat Aderliem t e (b)t he ihar- a i t e r i z i Au u m e t i m a ioAie pt ioA o f A o A - b e i A u to r p o p e r l g A o t - b e i A ua t m ( i ) ( of mt AdiAu (almomt iA that juridiial meAme iA rhi h mo eoAe mag hare •Ao mtA dA u' A a parti ular iourt Ad iame- or (ii) priratioA or a t t eA u a t i o A . umt am the eximteAtial ume of 'Aobodg' or 'AothiAu' iorre- m p o A d mt o h e e x i m t e A ta i l u m e of ' t o e t 1 1 t h e i h a r a t e r i z i A u m e m o r r em poA d t o i o p u l a t i r e' t o b e . 'h e p e r m o Ar h o i m ' A o b o d g 'A t h e m e A m eh a t h e ' d o e mA o t i o A t •1 i m i e t a i A l gA o f i i t i r eo r h o A - e x i m t e Ae t A t i t g cl i n e r i m e for the thiAu that im depreiated am a 'AothiAu.A Ae iuht ob jet at thim oiAt hat here im Ao Aeed o m o t a iop- ulatire oAmt u tioA iA he Aalgmim of he ihara teriziAu ume.
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