Oxymoron! 5

[UniqueFD]

Is 'Doing Nothing' an oxymoron?"

The original context for this question is that I have been asked what I'd like to do tonight and replied, "I've been so busy lately, I'd like to do nothing".

Can I actively do nothing? I would appreciate some feedback on this. If, in thinking around the subject, you find some other amusing/infuriating oxymorons, please share them!!!

(Also, I just think the word is great - OXYMORON!! )

Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[Thadeus]

The guy who intones oh so seriously that pimply-faced teens should "OXYCUTE EM"

He is an oxymoron...



~Thadeus

 

[Dimandja]

>Aren't all oxymorons, to a degree, a misrepresentation of facts, a mutually exclusive condition in which if you have "one" it excludes the "other"?

Yes.

In the case of "do nothing", there is no mutually exclusive condition, only absurdity. As I indicated, the only things we can "do", are things we can explain. Since we cannot explain "nothing", the phrase "do nothing" does not make sense.

It reminds me of another debate here at the office, where someone said "The universe is huge", and another said "Incorrect. We don't know the size of the universe -- therefore we cannot qualify its size".

Om Mani Padme Hum

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> In the case of "do nothing", there is no mutually exclusive condition, only absurdity. As I indicated, the only things we can "do", are things we can explain. Since we cannot explain "nothing", the phrase "do nothing" does not make sense.

I disagree. I think you can "do nothing" and explain it. How many times have been faced with a decision about how to deal with a certain situation, and your choice is to "do nothing". Let nature take its course.

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[Zathras]

CC: I remember hearing about a skit that Bob Newhart did where he was Herman Hollerith and was trying to sell his new idea for tabulating the census results. One of the funniest points was that "the information is in the holes." I have never heard it but would love to some day. I think he did it for some IBM convention in the 60s or 70s.

 

[UniqueFD]

CC,
To be contentious, isn't letting nature take it's course doing something else, not doing nothing? At best, it is limiting the 'nothing' by putting boundaries around it:
doing nothing - until events take the decision out of my hands
doing nothing - about this particular condition, event, circumstance
doing nothing - as long as we both shall live ( ay, Dave)

Refering to the helpful definition jsteph found, it is impossible to do nothing, and the concept of nothing is a whole debate in itself.

But, IS IT AN OXYMORON?

Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[CajunCenturion]

I agree, and it boils down to semantics and scope. Choosing to "do nothing" is choosing a certain course of action, both reasonable and explainable, which one on level, is doing something. However, at the level of the situation, you are doing nothing.

And no, I do not believe it to be an oxymoron, because it context, it makes perfect sense.

Similarly, the phrase "same difference" can in context, not be oxymoronic at all. These two subtraction problems: (4 - 2 = x and 7 - 5 = x) have the same difference.

Good Luck
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[Dimandja]

>The leap my mind took was to consider Doing implies action and Nothing implies inaction, which would indeed negate and therefore constitute an oxymoron.

The problem is "nothing" is not "inaction". "Nothing" could be construed as a quantity, for example. If we get an explanation of what "nothing" means, I'm sure someone will find a way to "do" it.


But is it an oxymoron?

No. You cannot exclude a verb with anything.

 

[DrJavaJoe]

How about the absence of anything, in which case we would need to define anything.


Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'.

 

[SantaMufasa]

One of the most important Information Technology concepts in Oracle is the concept and existence of nothing (i.e., NULL). It is the absence of any information. It is not Zero, it is not spaces...it is the absence of information...it is the absence of electronic bits. It is such an important concept in Oracle that Oracle had to come up with a special comparison mechanism for the absence of information, "IS NULL" and "IS NOT NULL", meaning "Is the value unknown" and "Is the value not unknown"...using "=" when comparing to NULL can never be either "TRUE" or "FALSE"...the answer is itself, "UNKNOWN".

So, anyone who contends that we cannot know what "nothing" is can use Oracle and determine that "nothing" is "nothing".

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

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[UniqueFD]

CC/Dimandja,
(One) Definition of Nothing - the absence of doing??!!!!!

I concede the point, though. 'Nothing' may include the antithesis of Doing, but it is much more vast than that and cannot, at present, be accurately be described. Having considered your arguments, I wouldn't call it an oxymoron, either.

Thanks for your input.

Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[SantaMufasa]

That's true, Tony! As with my Oracle assertion, "nothing" is, in fact, incomparable. The most we can say about "nothing" is that it is "nothing". To compare "nothing" to "something", i.e, "Does 'nothing' = 'something'?" or "Does 'nothing' not = 'something'?", the result is neither "TRUE" nor "FALSE"...the result is, itself, "UNKNOWN"/"NULL"/"NO ANSWER".

So, in the case of, "Is 'Do nothing' an oxymoron," the answer would have to be neither "TRUE" nor "FALSE", but "UNKNOWN", right?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[GwydionM]

To get back to the original topic, precise oxymoron.

------------------------------
An old man who lives in the UK

 

[craigsboyd]

Proving the existence of nothing renders it as something and therefore it is no longer nothing and doesn't exist. Consequently, if you can prove that nothing doesn't exist then you have brought it into being.

"If Something is Nothing, then Nothing is Something..." (around and around we go)

As to the phrase "Do Nothing", there needs be an implied qualification, scope, and/or definition that is understood by the speaker and listener. Nothing must have an understood definition of the thing that you are doing none of (as CajunCenturion has pointed out above). In its rightful context, it is with some certainty that I say an entity can do nothing.

It should be noted that the qualification, scope, and/or definition in this case is coming from the questioner, and not the one who is answering. Consider the following...

Question: "What are you doing?"
Implied: Tell me what you are in the midst of doing that would be of any interest to me?

Answer: "Nothing."
Implied: "I am not in the midst of doing anything that I believe would be of any interest to you."

If you take away the implications, as has been the case in more than a few posts above, then the answer does indeed become impossible and a falsehood. However, to remove this additional context that surely frames the question changes the intent completely and you are no longer talking about the same thing any longer. You have abscribed a very narrow and unintended context to the original question and forced the answer into the explicit in an attempt to make your argument.

Question: "What are you doing?"
Implied: "Tell me everything, down to the minutest detail, that you are doing at this very moment?"

Answer: "I am breathing, blinking both eyes, living on earth, thinking about your question, answering your question, existing in the moment, talking to you, looking at you, listening to everything the my ears can hear, ..." (around and around we go)

While it is true that an answer of "Nothing" to the above question would lack veracity (if the implied was understood by both parties), it is also true that an argument that only holds up in such circumstances could be discounted in the vast majority of situations in which one finds themselves presented with such a question.

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[SantaMufasa]

Craig...You have a dizzying intellect...and it is certainly something!

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[Dimandja]

>So, anyone who contends that we cannot know what "nothing" is can use Oracle and determine that "nothing" is "nothing".

Actually, NULL is never equal to NULL. "Nothing" does not have anything to compare it to.

 

[jsteph]

SantaMufasa,
And to further that 'Nothing' comparison (and to confuse things), Nothing does not equal Nothing, ie two instances of NULL are not equal to each other.

Great...now I've got the Billy Preston song in my head...

Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'...

--Jim

 

[Dimandja]

Although I understand the "context" argument, the fact remains that when you designate a phrase as oxymoronic, the possible context does not matter, and is never refered to.

Check out all the other oxymoron expressions, and you'll see that the phrase must stand on its own, not justified by contexts.

 

[SilentAiche]

Can someone "do nothing" better than someone else?

A curious question, with interesting implications to the argument.

Tim

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[CajunCenturion]

==> Check out all the other oxymoron expressions, and you'll see that the phrase must stand on its own, not justified by contexts.

Does that mean that for a word or phrase to be an oxymoron, it must always be an oxymoron, or that it is an oxymoron if there is at least one context in which it is an oxymoron?

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[SantaMufasa]

Dimandja and JSteph,

I must not have been explicit enough in my earlier assertions if both of you had to mention that "NULL is never equal to NULL." That, actually was the whole point in my replies. The first thing that Oracle users learn about NULL is that when you ask the question, "IS NULL = NULL", the answer is not "TRUE", it is not "FALSE", the answer is "NULL".

To put this in easier semantic perspective, replace the word "NULL" with "an Unknown value". Then ask, "IS an Unknown value = an Unknown value?" The answer is neither "TRUE" nor "FALSE", but "UNKNOWN". If you want to receive an answer of "TRUE" or "FALSE" about an Unknown value, then you can ask just two questions:

1) "IS the value Unknown?" (To which the answer is verifiably "TRUE" or "FALSE") or

2) "IS the value NOT Unknown?" (To which the answer is again verifiably "TRUE" or "FALSE").

That is why the only phrases comparing NULL in Oracle that will return either "TRUE" or "FALSE" are "...<expression> IS NULL..." or "...<expression> IS NOT NULL..."; if you say "...<expression> = NULL" or "...<expression> != NULL", the answer itself is "NULL" (neither "TRUE" nor "FALSE").

Whew!

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.