The Void

Dr. Katherine Everitt

GCAS Masters Course in Philosophy

20, 21, 27, 28 September 2025 at 11am ET/5pm CET via GCAS Zoom

Course Description

What exactly is the void? An idealized nothingness, a naturalized vacuum, or the crux of subjectivity itself? For many philosophers, it is impossible to assert that the void exists. As Parmenides put it, “there is no such thing as what-is-not.” To say that the nothing is risks pulling out the rug from under the feet of reason itself. And yet, the void may be sutured to reason as the incarnation of indeterminacy that latches onto every determination. Even more radically, beyond the epistemic paradox of the void, we will ask if being itself can ever be disentangled from the void. Thus, the aim of this course is to investigate the in-existence of the void.  We will focus on the ontological systems of Hegel and Badiou, with support from Lucretius and Dolar, in locating the errant void at the heart of being itself. The atom and the void as the defining features of materialism will serve as our starting point. We will then ask if the void is a naturalistic phenomenon or if it is, in fact, a logical necessity.  What is the relationship between the void, the one, and infinity both ontologically and mathematically? Last, we will investigate the anxiety of the void as well as the beauty of its potential. 

Reading List

Day 1: The Nature of Things (1st century B.C.) by Lucretius. Recommended translation by A. E. Stallings for Penguin Classics (2007). “Book I: Matter and Void” and “Book II: The Dance of Atoms.” 

Day 2: Science of Logic (1816) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Recommended translation by George di Giovanni for Cambridge University Press (2010). “B. The One and the Many” from “Chapter 3: Being-for-itself” (p. 132-137). Please also familiarize yourself with the “Being,” “Nothing,” and “Becoming” sections (without remarks) from “Chapter 1: Being” (p. 59-60).

Day 3: Being and Event (1988) by Alain Badiou. Recommended translation by Oliver Feltham for Continuum (2005). “Part I: Being Multiple and Void. Plato/Cantor” (p. 23-77). Particular attention will be paid to Meditations 4-6.

Day 4: “The Atom and the Void – from Democritus to Lacan” (2013) by Mladen Dolar. Filosofski Vestnik. Volume 34: No. 2. pp. 11-26.

“A Throw of the Dice through Space” (2025) by Katherine Everitt. Socrates on the Beach.