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This essay focuses on one of the most intriguing literary puzzles today, an anonymously published volume Being or Nothingness. Multiplying puzzles and provoking speculative searches for answers, this spoof on Sartre's seminal philosophical text (if this is what it is), I argue, insists on its unique qualities as a bound physical object while simultaneously "unbounding" itself through resolute participation in a variety of networks. Ultimately, I propose, it can be seen as an exemplary specimen of what N. Katherine Hayles has dubbed the "postprint era." Importantly, although in many ways a sui generis book, Being or Nothingness is like other, less baffling, fiction books that through elaborate design forge an oxymoronic "unique copy"; intensifying artifice, they tease with the promise of an auratic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of nothingness as used in classical Daoist philosophy, building upon contemporary scholarship by offering a uniquely phenomenological reading of the term. It will be argued that the Chinese word wu bears upon two planes of reality concurrently: as ontological nothingness and as ontic nonbeing. Presenting wu in this dyadic manner is essential if we wish to avoid equating it with Dao itself, as many have been wont to do; rather, wu is the mystery that perpetually veils Dao while serving as the root and counter-balance to being, and yet, Dao also imbues things with wu to the extant that their physical makeup and usefulness, or lack thereof, can be traced back to their source in Dao. This does not only mean that Daoist cosmogony and metaphysics are inherently informed by nothingness/nonbeing instead of being/beings but that it works to unground all moral and epistemological norms in play, a feat no other school of thought in ancient China could accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the doctrine of creation ex nihilo and its significances for natural theology. It discusses the contemporary theories of cosmogenesis which permit the term "nothing" to depict the initial moment after the explosion of the universe. It explores the ambiguous utilization of the term "nothing" which prevents astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss from providing a comprehensive answer to philosophy's perennial question.

The essay discusses the philosophical debate over whether or not death is nothing, and whether we can experience misfortune in death, according to the description of death by ancient philosopher Epicurus in his short work "Letter to Meneoceus." The author cites philosophical views of death and misfortune from philosophers such as Jeff McMahan, George Pitcher, and Thomas Nagel. The author describes ideas such as unknown betrayal, desire, and intrinsic value versus extrinsic value.

Explores the relationship between creation and ecology. Assessment of the creation and divine love; Concept of nothing and creation; Superiority of the human being in creation.

Several distinguished philosophers have argued that since the state of affairs where nothing exists is the simplest and least arbitrary of all cosmological possibilities, we have reason to be surprised that there is in fact a non-empty universe. We review this traditional argument, and defend it against two recent criticisms put forward by Peter van Inwagen and Derek Parfit. Finally, we argue that the traditional argument nevertheless needs reformulation, and that the cogency of the reformulated argument depends partly on whether there are certain conceptual limitations to what a person can hypothetically doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]