Filter Coffee #094

On Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit

Dear Readers,

The 93rd edition, on Imagination & Knowledge, was a bit heavy, yet many of my readers have read through the post and offered their comments. Some of them are:

• S G Murali says: “Good one, Pras. These days, one is flooded with Data.  When we distill the data, we get information. Further analysis of information leads to Knowledge. Using that knowledge productively is Wisdom.”

• Chandu Misra from Kolkata says: “Most Interesting — clearly, Imagination built on Knowledge trumps one or the other.”

🤔 “Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit” or “Nothing Comes From Nothing” 

This is a famous quote by the Pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides. The word ‘Pre-Socratic’ may be understood as ‘before Socrates’. There were philosophers before Socrates and there were many who were his contemporaries, but they held their own, uninfluenced by the views of Socrates. 

Ex nihilo means out of nothing, and God is said to have created the universe out of nothing.

If we apply this quote, which is also an idiom, to our ordinary life it would simply mean that without effort nothing can be achieved. But it also has a slightly different meaning when you get something unexpected, and you ask yourself “to what do I owe this?”. You could then tell yourself, “I must have done something good to deserve this.”

If you recall, there was a song called “nothing comes from nothing” that Julie Andrews sang in the movie Sound of Music. The lyrics, reproduced below,  make the point that if something happens it has some correlation to something good done in the past.

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood

Perhaps I had a miserable youth

But somewhere in my wicked, miserable past

There must have been a moment of truth

For here you are, standing there, loving me

Whether or not you should

So somewhere in my youth or childhood

I must have done something good

Nothing comes from nothing

Nothing ever could

So somewhere in my youth or childhood

I must have done something good

Does this mean that nothing comes free unless you have done something to deserve it? Does it also mean that there is nothing ‘unconditional’? Is everything a quid pro quo? Often we hear people saying that the love you get from your dog is unconditional. On the face of it, the saying rings true, but you need to first possess the dog and care for it to experience that unconditional love. It does not come from doing anything but getting a dog and caring for it.

Speaking of love, one cannot help but recall ‘King Lear’, a much-acclaimed work of Shakespeare. When old King Lear decides to retire and divide his kingdom among his three daughters, their entitlement to a share in the kingdom is determined by how much each one of them loves him. He doesn't care if it is simple flattery, and to that extent, he is a fool to believe all that love the daughters may profess. Regan and Goneril, the first two daughters, proclaim their love for their father, and the old king falls prey to their flattery and rewards them. The third daughter, the youngest of the three, Cordelia, who actually loves him most, cannot find the flattering words to articulate her love for her father. He prods her and demands that she speak up and praise him more than her sisters. When Cordelia is unable to express herself, the King screams, “What do you have to say?” When Cordelia responds “Nothing” the king is enraged and tells her that "nothing will come of nothing," and excommunicates her with no money, title, or any share of his kingdom.

During our daily interactions, we encounter the word ‘nothing’ in a variety of circumstances.

Does that word really convey nothingness? Let us consider a few conversations:

A: Are you busy with anything?

B: Nothing.

(nothing could mean nothing important)

A: What is worrying you?

B: Nothing

(nothing comes from the denial of worrisome thought)

A: What are you thinking?

B: Nothing

(nothing comes from a reluctance to share what’s on the mind)

Judge: Have you anything to say?

Accused: Nothing

(nothing comes from the advice the lawyer gave, ‘say nothing’)

Here’s a ‘nothing’ joke: “If you ask me what I am doing today and I say ‘nothing’ it does not mean I am free. It means I am still doing nothing.”

‘No pain, no gain’ is another variant of ‘nothing comes from nothing’. It simply means that if you have done nothing to get what you wanted, you get nothing. If one wants to succeed in one’s mission, one has to endure the associated pain. ‘No pain, no gain’ was coined way back in the 80s, by Jane Fonda, the famous Hollywood actress who made aerobic exercises popular, particularly among women. If one wanted to remain in good shape one had to work out and that meant enduring the pain physically and letting the mind rule the body, which is in itself a kind of painful accomplishment. The proverb ‘no pain, no gain’ has its roots in what Benjamin Franklin said in 1758 when he wrote in “The way to wealth” the words “there are no gains without pains.”

If nothing comes from nothing, is there nothing to lose? To quote the Dalai Lama, “Do something that scares you every day. You have nothing to lose but fear itself.” This would sort of imply that if you do something, you lose nothing. But you may or may not gain something. That could logically mean something may come out if you give up doing nothing. 

In our scriptures, we are advised not to expect anything in return for favours done. Some would object to the use of the word ‘favour’ as they would rather call it a duty that one is called upon to discharge by some divine intervention. The duty or favour is not to be confused with charity, which is made of one’s own volition to another person or entity without any expectation.

Nothing comes from nothing would simply mean that if you do not have a sense of duty or willingness to help or do not possess a charitable disposition, you have nothing to give and nothing is received by anybody.

The idiom ‘nothing comes from nothing’ is best understood by your own attitude and the way you attend to your tasks. If mistakes happen, they are relatable to something that you are doing.

For example, my granddaughter is learning to play the piano, and she is bound to make a mistake here and there. On the one hand, if she gives up playing, nothing can go wrong, but if she persists in learning from her mistakes, she could perfect the art.

Simply put, not making any effort to do something would mean nothing comes from nothing. 

Speaking for myself, nothing would have come from my doing nothing when the pandemic put me under house arrest, but I decided (nudged by my kids) to write FC and so something came out of nothing.

Ciao, see you next week.