Logic, fondly referred to by Logicians as the ‘Laws of Thought’ [the title to an early text], deals exclusively with abstract things.
But first Classical Logic needs to lay down some ground rules. And the Classes of Logic are part of the ground rules. If you want to apply the rules of Logic, you must agree to abide by the ground rules.
Logic begins with naming three classes: the Universe Class, the Unit Class and the Null [or Empty ] Class. This roughly corresponds to what the rest of us call: Everything, One, and Nothing.
So where did these Classes come from? We’ll were not too sure. They are sort of like the ‘Conservation Principles’ of Physics that are not themselves derivations from Physics but then get to arbiter what falls under ‘Physics’.
So what’s so special about the Empty Class of Logic? Unlike the more respectable Universe or Unit Classes, the Empty Class is a bit of a shady character. It is the sole depository, the designated dumping-ground for all things absurd.
In other words, the designated dumping ground for all Self-Eating Expressions. It is the ugly-duckling, the black-sheep, the squint-eyed baby Mama tries to hide from the neighbors. All absurd expressions, words and phrases that don’t make any sense get to see the inside of the Null Class of Logic.
[The Rinzai Tradition of Zen draws on this central feature of Emptiness; ‘The sound of one hand clapping’, and so on].]
For the Logician such absurd expressions do not apply to the ‘Real World’. The abstracted, doubled, referential world where logical operators are designed to function. There really are no such things.
If you say ‘Round Squares’, it gets put in the Null Class. And if you say, ‘There is no ‘Me”!’ it gets put in the Null Class. And a Doctor is called to the house to check your mental stability.
The English translation of the term Śūnyathā as ‘Emptiness’ and most widely used in todays Sanghas originates here although no Guru I have met has the vaguest idea of its origins.
Not-Two 