There is no Void in Nature

16. There can be no Void

Void is an empty space where there is no substance.

No such space exists in the universe.

This is because the extension of space or of internal place is the same as the extension of body.

A substance is anything that has aetherspace [extension] in length, width, and height.

• This is because we cannot conceive of a “nothing” that has the aetherspace [extension]

Empty space has length, width, and height.

• Therefore, it must necessarily also contain substance [as the aetherspace].*

17. The word “void” in everyday language does not exclude all kinds of body

In everyday speech, we use the word “void” for an empty place.

“Void” here means that that place lacks whatever we expected to be there.

• It does not mean a total lack of anything.

For example:

• a jug is made to hold water.
  • We say that it is empty when it contains only air.
• a pond usually has fish
  • If there are no fish, we say there is nothing in it even if it is full of water.

Similarly, we say a ship is empty when, instead of being loaded with its usual cargo, it is filled only with sand to help it resist the force of the wind.

We use the word “void” in the same sense when we say a space is empty.

• We mean that it contains nothing perceptible to us even if it may still contain created matter and extended substance [aetherspace].

This is because we normally consider nearby bodies only if they cause strong enough impressions on our senses for us to perceive them.

This is why when we see an empty jug, we mistakenly say that it is void.

• This is because we cannot see the air in it, not because we think that air is not a real thing or substance.

18. How we can correct the false opinion about void

There is no necessary connection between a vessel and its contents.

• And so it seems to us that God could remove the contents of the vessel while preserving the vessel itself unchanged, without requiring new content to replace the removed one.

Although there is no necessary link between the vessel and its contents, there is an absolutely necessary connection between the concave shape of the vessel and the aetherspace [extension] that exists within that concavity.

It is absurd to imagine:

• a mountain without a valley
• a hollow shape without any aetherspace [extension] in it

It is impossible to have length, width, height [extension] without something having that length, width, height.

• This is because nothingness cannot have length, width, height

Therefore, if God removed the contents of a vessel without replacing it, then the sides of the vessel would collapse inward.

• They would immediately touch each other.

This is because 2 bodies must touch whenever there is nothing between them.

It would be a contradiction to say that:

• 2 bodies are separated by a distance
• at the same time, this distance is nothing.

Distance is a property of length, width, height [extension].

• Length, width, height cannot exist without something having that length, width, height