nothingness

Nothingness is the absence of being or existence. In philosophy and related disciplines, it refers to the state of non-being and to the negation of any given entity or property. It is distinct from emptiness in everyday speech and from mere void; it is a defined concept with varied interpretations across traditions.

In ancient Greek thought, discussions of nothingness appear in debates about being and becoming. Aristotle argued that "nothing" is not a thing in nature but a privation—an absence of a positive attribute. Medieval and early modern thinkers expanded the idea in theological and metaphysical contexts, often treating nothing as an explanation for change or evil.

In 20th-century phenomenology, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness treats nothingness as a fundamental aspect of consciousness that negates and anticipates reality; Martin Heidegger uses the term to discuss the question of beings and the human relation to being.

Physically, the vacuum is often described as "empty" but it is not nothing; quantum field theory yields fluctuations and energy present in a vacuum. The mathematical empty set represents the unique set with no elements and underpins the idea of zero as a number; zero is sometimes linked to nothingness in mathematical practice.

Religious traditions sometimes assert creation ex nihilo, the creation of the world from nothing. Cosmological models debate whether the universe emerged from a state of nothingness or from a quantum vacuum, with no universally accepted answer.