The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero
by Robert Kaplan

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Book Reviews of The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero

Book Review: Diving into nothing
Summary: 5 Stars

To be fair, it is true that this is not an easy read. However, this is less due to the prose of the author than it is to the great seriousness which he devotes to this concept. The further that you read into this book, the more it is clear that the concept of zero is so interwoven into every fabric of what has created our civilization that it is impossible to discuss it without summoning philosophy, religion, language, art... nothing, as this book shows, is truly in everything.

It is also true that there is no bibliography, and I too would like to look at some of the sources Kaplan uses. However, to say, as some people claim, that Kaplan had an agenda in re-writing history is not at all reinforced by the evidence. As he wades through the murky origins of this number (and concept), he takes pains to give ample amounts of evidence. His result doesn't dictate, but instead lets the reader decide.

Based on the number of 1-star reviews this has gotten, it clearly is not for everyone. However, I worked my way through it, and if I rushed at the end, it was only because I was insistent on finishing it so I could immediately give it to a friend who was interested in this concept as well. This one takes work: but in my opinion, it's a price well paid for a fanastic book on one of the most elusive of concepts.

Summary of The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero

Robert Kaplan is a mathematics teacher, and he organizes his cabinet around--nothing. How did we come to have a symbol for zero? Who used it first? Usually the invention (or discovery) of zero is given as occurring in India in about the year 600 CE. Kaplan gives much more shrift to Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek experiments with abacuses, counting boards, positional notation, and abstract thought. He acknowledges that his approach will be controversial:

Haven't all our dots funneled back to India? Were zero and the variable not truly born here, twin offspring of sunya and what seems the singularly Indian understanding of vacancy as receptive? But like an hour-glass, the funnel opens out again and the dots stream down to ancient Greece.

Kaplan's meditations on zero are not confined to its origin. He muses on the "zero of self," on infinitesimals, on the Mayan zero, and on the nothingness of suicide. Throughout, he shows "a sensuous delight in syllables," a love of words as well as numbers, that makes the book a feast for both halves of the brain. --Mary Ellen Curtin

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