Single Idea 458

[catalogued under 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 5. Reason for Existence]

Full Idea

From what in no wise exists, it is impossible for anything to come into being; for Being to perish completely is incapable of fulfilment and unthinkable.

Gist of Idea

Nothing could come out of nothing, and existence could never completely cease

Source

Empedocles (fragments/reports [c.453 BCE], B012), quoted by Anon (Lyc) - On Melissus 975b1-4

Book Reference

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.52


A Reaction

The first statement of a conservation law. Modern physics is wonderful, but hasn't offered a flicker of an answer to this puzzle. Quantum fluctuations are a mode of Being.