Void Hypothesis

<h3>Void hypothesis</h3>

The atomistic void hypothesis was a response to the paradoxes of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides" title="Parmenides">Parmenides</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Elea" title="Zeno of Elea">Zeno</a>, the founders of metaphysical logic, who put forth difficult to answer arguments in favor of the idea that there can be no movement. They held that any movement would require a void—which is nothing—but a nothing cannot exist. The Parmenidean position was "You say there is a void; therefore the void is not nothing; therefore there is not the void".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus#cite_note-Russell69-36">[35]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus#cite_note-Physics-37">[36]</a> The position of Parmenides appeared validated by the observation that where there seems to be nothing there is air, and indeed even where there is not matter there is something, for instance light waves.

The atomists agreed that motion required a void, but simply ignored the argument of Parmenides on the grounds that motion was an observable fact. Therefore, they asserted, there must be a void. This idea survived in a refined version as Newton's theory of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_space" class="mw-redirect" title="Absolute space">absolute space</a>, which met the logical requirements of attributing reality to not-being. Einstein's theory of relativity provided a new answer to Parmenides and Zeno, with the insight that space by itself is relative and cannot be separated from time as part of a generally curved space-time manifold. Consequently, Newton's refinement is now considered superfluous.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus#cite_note-Russell69.E2.80.9371-38">[37]</a>