Paradox of Nothing: A Paracomplete Solution

Studies in Logic, Vol. 17, No. 6 (2024): 18–41                   PII: 1674­3202(2024)­06­0018­24

Fei Liang, Zhongxu Tian

Abstract. The concept of nothing(ness) is a profound philosophical enigma, it is simultaneously a thing but no thing, and hence is paradoxical. To solve this paradox, Priest proposes a systematic formalization for theory of nothing based on paraconsistent logic and mereology. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to resolve the paradox using a paracomplete logic, Łucasiewich 3­valued logic. We argue that, even though we accept Priest’s characterizations of nothing, accepting contradictions about nothing is still not necessary.