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Logic and Logical Philosophy

Better Than Zilch?
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Better Than Zilch?

Authors

  • Filippo Casati University of St. Andrews
  • Naoya Fujikawa Kyoto University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/LLP.2015.004

Keywords

‘Zilch’, ‘nothing’ as a singular term, empty terms, null objects, nothingness, Martin Heidegger

Abstract

In their paper ‘Zilch’, Oliver and Smiley claim that the word ‘nothing’ can be used as a singular term and that ‘nothing’ as a singular term and the word ‘zilch’ are empty terms, which fail to refer to anything. In this paper, we propose that ‘nothing’ as a singular term and ‘zilch’ can be used to denote null things such as absences, null objects or nothingness. We also claim that, pace their interpretation of Heidegger’s ‘das Nichts’ as an empty term, it should be understood as such a singular term that refers to nothingness.

Author Biographies

Filippo Casati, University of St. Andrews

Department of Philosophy

Naoya Fujikawa, Kyoto University

Center for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Education and Research

References

Bunge, M., “On null individuals”, The Journal of Philosophy, 63 (1966): 776–778. DOI:10.2307/2023807

Carroll, L., Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., 1865. DOI:10.1017/CBO9781139568555. The page reference is to the reprint in M. Gardner (ed.), The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000.

Heidegger, M., Sein und Zeit, Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1953. [In French:] Être et Temps, Paris: Éditions Gallimard 1927. [In English:] Being and Time, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.

Heidegger, M., Identität und Differenz, Pfullingen: Verlag Gunther Neske, 1957 and Stuttgart: Verlagsgemeinschaft Ernst Klett-J.G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger GmbH, 2002. [In English:] Identity and Difference, New York, NJ: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1969, and Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002. [In Italian:] Identità e Differenza, Milano: Adelphi, 2009.

Heidegger, M., Wegmarken, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann GmbH, 1967 and 2nd revised and expanded edition, 1976. [In English:] Pathmarks, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. [In Italian:] Segnavia, Milano: Adelphi, 1987.

Heidegger, M., Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Logik im Ausgang von Leibniz, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann GmbH, 1978. [In English:] The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1984.

Heidegger, M., Beitrage zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis), Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann GmbH, 1989. [In English:] Contribution to philosophy (of the Event), Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2012. [In Italian:] Contributi alla filosofia (Dell’evento), Milano: Adelphi, 2007.

Martin, C.B., “How it is: Entities, absences and voids”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74 (1996): 57–65. DOI:10.1080/00048409612347061

Oliver, A., and T. Smiley, “Zilch”, Analysis, 73 (2013): 601–613. DOI:10.1093/analys/ant074

Parsons, T., Nonexistent Objects, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.

Priest, G., Beyond the Limits of Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995 and 2nd. ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199254057.001.0001

Priest, G., Towards Non-Being: The Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Priest, G., One: Being an Investigation into the Unity of Reality and of its Parts, including the Singular Object which is Nothingness, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688258.001.0001

Routley, R., “On what there is not”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 43, 2 (1982): 151–171. DOI:10.2307/2107527

Sartre, J.P., L’Être et le Néant, Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1943. [In English:] Being and Nothing: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, New York: Philosophical Library, 1956.

Zalta, E., Intensional Logic and the Metaphysics of Intentionality, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988.

Logic and Logical Philosophy

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Published

2015-02-10

How to Cite

1.
CASATI, Filippo and FUJIKAWA, Naoya. Better Than Zilch?. Logic and Logical Philosophy. Online. 10 February 2015. Vol. 24, no. 2, p. 255–264. [Accessed 22 May 2025]. DOI 10.12775/LLP.2015.004.
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