(February 8, 2018 at 11:15 am)SteveII Wrote: You are playing word games. 'Nothing' is a pronoun (not a noun as you need it to be) that denotes negation so your phrase means "not a single thing exists". This is a tired old game.
"not a single thing exists" means the same thing as "not-something exists". Just as:
"I had nothing for lunch today" means the same thing as "I had not-something for lunch today", which is equivalent in meaning to "I had not a single thing for lunch today",
and
"I saw nobody in the office" means the same thing as "I saw not-somebody in the office", which is equivalent in meaning to "I saw not a single body in the office".
So no problem so far.
Going back to "nothing exists" which means "not a single thing exists" which means "not-something exists":
"exists" means "is something".
So what you're saying is:
"not-something is something".
And so it looks to be a logical contradiction.