What is the relationship beween Philosophy to Literature via the Lens of the Metaphyiscal topic of Nohtingness in 3 Shakespearean Tragedies?That Shakespeare was a great writer there is no doubt. That he was a keen psychological observer there is no question. But are there philosophical topics illustrated in the questions his works raises? This work argues that in the 3 tragedies of King Lear, Richard II, and Macbeth an argument can be made for a philosophical subtext. Who does not experience the power of the "love test" in King Lear where Cordelia when asked to say how much she lover's her father says, "Nothing my lord" to which King Lear responds, "nothing?", replay again "nohting, to which Lear explodes "Nothing will come of nothing...." In the tragedy of Richard 2 Shakesepeare raises philosophical quesitons of coming to terms with one's own mortality (also seen in the grave yard scene of Hamlet) where nothing figures as a euphamism of the next stage in the journey of life but more poignantly the srripping down of the ego to titleless complete freedom from sense of self which Shakesepare knows a magnanimous King must not be arrogant, haught, but extremely humble constantly reminded of the human condiiton's state of finitude. In Macbeth the political social climber has stopped at nothing to murder his way to the dung hill of the top of coorporate success only to arrive at the bleak nihilism of the famous "it all signifies nothing" which represents a total moral and ethical bankrupcy to justify Macbeth's own path over the broken backs of his exploited victims. The paper is preceded by a comic preface that takes its departure from the comedy "Much ado about Nothing" which hinges on the key linguistic factoid that in Elizabethan times the word nothing, pronounced with a hard "t" noting, was a euphamism for the femail genitlia etc. However the conclusion is not so light but plumbs the depths of philosophical ponder by touching on a sketch of deep philosophic treatment of nothingness, negation, and abscence from Parmenides and pre socratics, Plato, Aristotle, medieval rationalists like Maimonides-Crescas-Gersonides and Medieval 13th Century Kabbalists who explored the doctrine of creation ex nihilo (yesh miayin) . This examinaiton of Creation from nothing later formed the subject of other papers that focused specifically on Kabbalistic understanding of yesh miayin etc. However after the medieval codex on the Mikubalim with spring off to Hegel in Phenomenologie Der Geist, and Kant's Science of Logic, to later Frankfurt schoolers or Jewish emigre social scientists like Adorno, Horkheimer, Arendt, Bloch, and Habermas. We wrap up with Freud's notion of negation and sublimation that draws on the power of the ego, superego, and id to understand the angst vor das Nichts, in a unheimlich manner- different completely from Heidegger. The last footnote is dedicated to Zen Buddism where nothingness is a major theme and reality for the meditative life of ataining nirvana.
Medieval Political Philosophy by 
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