Event Detail

Thu Dec 15, 2011
Howison Library
4:10–6 PM
Graduate Research Colloquium
Vanessa de Harven (University of California, Berkeley)
How Nothing Can be Something: The Stoic Theory of Void

The notion of void has posed metaphysical difficulties for philosophers since antiquity, and the Stoics are no exception. What could something that is arguably nothing even be? The Stoics’ answer to this question was a matter of some internal debate then, as it is now to those of us looking back. I will give an account of the Stoics’ unique theory of void, and show how it illustrates the general ontological principles that make the Stoics our first true physicalists.