can you hold nothing in the palm of your hand?

Question

this is in the philosophy section for a reason, please think before answering

Answer 1

I bought house numbers for my new house today
I live at number 20
I put the 2 and the 0 up seperately therefore I not only held the 0 but I screwed it top and bottom next to the veranda in front of my wife.
The neighbour saw me do it and mentioned it to his wife and she said he could do her number 2's if he felt ilke it.

Answer 2

[UPDATED]
Nothingness is fundamentally a metaphysical concept. As a conceptual reality it generates further questions. For example - what is nothing? Is it absence of a thing or the entire reality? Is is anti reality concept? The very concept at once creates a reality by asking questions upon which further things can be explored. This shows how eager and quick our mind is to create things out of nothing. In this sense again yes, depending upon what do you mean by 'the palm of my hand'.

In the exclusive world of physical reality, Nothingness is conceptual presence of any absence, and is therefore unique and without being unique nothing can exist. If Nothing is to become something that can be held then it will be nothing. So no, I cannot hold Nothing in the palm of my hand.

Answer 3

In terms of Physics/ physicla terms the answer is yes. If you put the palm of your hand to face downwards then sure you can hold 'nothing' in the palm of your hand.

In philosophical terms though, is you have a palm to your hand (thank God you are not disabled), then you sure got number of lines which mean a lot to the Palmist/s. And those lines you bring with you when you are born or may be they are on/in your palm even before you are born into this Universe. Since you cannot get rid/ erase them (they say its your fate after all...), you cannot hold nothiing in the palm of your hand in philosophical terms.

Answer 4

I do not know a definate answer to this as I am not sure it has one. You could say no because, if you have your hand open in a grasping position you are at least holding particles or whatever else in the air, this is one of those: well technically.... answers. But also yes because, if like me you are a believer in the concepts of JKD/Kung Fu martial arts and their respective beliefs of taoism etc. and many other things you could apply the : no way as way notion to this so by holding nothing you have everything so to speak. Once again i am only a 15 year old boy and so i may not be entirely correct. But oh well at least its 2 points for trying =D

Answer 5

This question triggered my memory and the following by William Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

Now read "The Holographic Universe" - by Michael Talbot.

Answer 6

Linguistically, to "hold nothing" implies simply not holding anything, so yes, in that sense it is possible. However, since nothing is just that - nothing - it is intangible, and cannot be held. If we want to dig even deeper into the philosophy, how do we even know that the hand exists?

Answer 7

no it is not possible to hold nothing in your hand because it is alive with some call it chi ( yout natural life force) to prove it i willgive you a simple excercise, if you can spread your arms out to full span, as you breate out then hold them there for a couple of seconds and relax your arms completley you will feel a differance, then breath normally, hold the palms of your hands about 30cm or and old fashond foot apart then very ,very, gently push the air gap between your hands, this resistance is your own chi, amazing isn't it

Answer 8

How can you hold nothing in the palm of your hand? Since term "To hold" is usually used to refer to objects which are either tangible or quantifiable for instance to hold time or someone in the palm of your hand. In philosophy, I understand that the term nothing may also equate to no-thing which is the opposite of some-thing. since therefore no-thing is in layman's terms called vacuum or space. To say that someone holds space is incorrect and it would be more accurate to say that a person can hold a portion of space in the palm in his/her hand.

Answer 9

I guess 'nothing' or no - thing is a little like the number zero...it doesn't really exist, so zero is not really a number and nothing is not really a thing. It's just a concept to denote the lack of 'something'. 'Zero' works in maths the same way 'nothing' works in language, by filling a gap that doesn't really exist.
So, sure...I got a big handful of nothing right here, want some?

Answer 10

i am not holding anything in my palm.

Doesn't that mean I am holding nothing in my palm.

Or you may argue that I am not holiding "nothing" in my palm because nothing is not a thing that can be held?

Whatever you say, the implications are that my palm is empty.
(Forget Air or palm lines).

Or you may say there is nothing to eat.
Well good enough, can I have two plates of nothing.
And also a glass of nothing to drink!