Hi Robleh,
Thank you for your response. What I tried to show was that for this specific question, any definite answer would be the result of the perspective (assumptions) someone takes. I agree with you that the answer to such a question is better expressed in terms of possibilities, and not in a definite truth-false value.
With all the modern results of science and an open-minded approach to the world, for me it is not difficult to accept that everything in our world appears in quantum states, or possibilities. When you look close enough to any phenomena in our world, it’s never either one extreme or the other, it’s always some combination of two opposites, which often appear to be conflicting at first (for instance: rationalism and empiricism, and the wave and particle properties of photons). Because of this sometimes even impossibility appears to be, or can be considered as, a possibility.
With respect to logic, I think that the open world assumption corresponds nicely with this open-mindedness. Personally I don’t even consider my own personal experiences or memories of those as fundamental truth values for my reasoning, and so I only use them for estimating confidence or possibilities. I mean, I could always have misinterpreted something and by that potentially have drawn a wrong conclusion, leading to “incorrect” memories, and why attach myself to something of which I cannot be sure?
In my essay the definition of Nothing I used is also important, because the answer to my question completely depends on the definition you use. For understanding this definition I gave, one possible approach could be to think of a directed graph that connects context-relevant concepts to those that are used to define it. Most fields of science would then show up as coherent groups of interconnected concepts, and my definition of Nothing would always remain as the single unknown.
I actually think that we mostly agree, and that at this moment we would both be viewing the discussion I mentioned from the sideline.
May I ask what kind of logic you are planning to use for that? I think that there are more people interested in some help with that discussion. Surely a logician like yourself has some valid logical reasoning behind that, right? In any case, good luck. I can imagine this difficulty in having children, teaching them what is true and what not, what is good and what is bad, and so on…