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A hypothetical non-container.
#21
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
(March 17, 2010 at 7:11 am)Saerules Wrote:
(March 17, 2010 at 7:09 am)tackattack Wrote: no Sae because the definition of a container is something that contains or keeps within limits. While your limit here is nothing or 0 therefore the definition isn't applicable.

Why couldn't a container contain nothing... in seriousness? A container might contain all of a thing, a little of a thing, a few things, something or another, or no things at all. If the limit here is that the container can only contain nothing... then why couldn't it contain nothing?

To say that it can hold nothing is to say that it cannot hold anything. If it cannot contain anything then it isn't a container. Nothing isn't a thing; we just use the word in a funny way.
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#22
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
I think you are talking about a solid object and therefore not a container. To talk about a container that holds a maximum of zero object is to speak of a logically impossible thing, like a triangle with four sides.

Another way to look at is a division by zero. A container that can hold a maximum of 8 things but only has 2 things in it could be expressed as 2/8ths full so a container that holds a maximum of 0 items, no matter how many things are in it would always be expressed as x/0 which is undefined in mathematics.

They made a box like that in Futurama and it was really portal to a parallel universe. Leela jumped into the box due to a coin toss and wackiness ensued.

Rhizo
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#23
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
ok I think that's enough mental gymnastics for me, we all seem to be saying thesame thing anyways. Smile
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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#24
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
Ahh but we might not be not-saying different things and that isn't what this thread is not about! Un-think not about nothing.
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#25
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
Which is better, a ham sandwich or eternal paradise?
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#26
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
a ham sandwich.. I'm hungry

rhizo I just did the pupil teacher thing and your post made my brain shut down. Time for a sandwich and a nap! LD
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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#27
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
Both are just mental contructs to me at this point so they are equaly unreal to me ergo, of equal value.

Tacky,

Um, yeah, that is a weird one.

Rhizo
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#28
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
The argument goes like this. "Nothing is better than eternal paradise. A ham sandwich is clearly better than nothing so the answer is a ham sandwhich."
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#29
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
It is a container, the container part is fine. The objects are the cause of the parodox, as there is no specified size then the container can hold [0,∞) objects. It can hold 0 objects that are too big, and ∞ objects that are ifinitely small. Without defining the size of the objects, any container will be able to hold [0,∞) objects.
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" - P.J. O'Rourke

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

"Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success." - Christopher Lasch

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#30
RE: A hypothetical non-container.
LukeMC Wrote:To say that it can hold nothing is to say that it cannot hold anything. If it cannot contain anything then it isn't a container. Nothing isn't a thing; we just use the word in a funny way.

Ah... but it is a container... for it contains nothing Smile

Why would an empty container not be a container? It turns out that this container can contain no things... therefore it contains nothing Smile

Why would its containment of nothing not make it a container?
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
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