"From start to finish the potter takes hold of the impalpable void and brings it forth as the container in the shape of a containing vessel. The jug's void determines all the handling in the process of making the vessel. The vessel's thingness does not lie at all in the material of which it consists, but in the void it holds. And yet, is the jug really empty?"
-Martin Heidegger, "The Thing," in Poetry, Language, and Thought, p. 169.
"11. Thirty spokes are united around the hub to make a wheel,
But it is on its non-being that the utility of the carriage
depends.
Clay is molded to form a utensil,
But it is on its non-being that the utility of the utensil
depends.
Doors and windows are cut out to make a room,
But it is on its non-being that the utility of the room
depends.
Therefore turn being into advantage, and turn non-being into utility."
-The Natural Way of Lao Tzu, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, translated and compiled by Wing-Tsit Chan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963).
MethodologicalHeader
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