21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview
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T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S
3. Something and Nothing
‘Nothing. Nothing is an awe-inspiring yet essentially undigested concept, highly esteemed by writers of a mystical or existential tendency, but by most others regarded with anxiety, nausea, or panic.’
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
Truth has taken on a special pre-eminence in modern times. Despite the onslaught of post-modernism, somehow there is an inherent belief in an absolute truth, in the form of verifiable correspondence with the observable world, as being at least theoretically possible. The notion still holds sway even although looking more closely at such truth claims leads inevitably to an ever-receding horizon of possible knowledge about the world. Look close enough at matter, or energy, or force and they simply evaporate. Is there anything absolutely true? Perhaps just the statement ‘something is going on’! But even that might be up for question. Even the difference between something and nothing might not ultimately be real.
As we’ve seen earlier, when one looks closely at words and descriptions and questions, they
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