To See the World in a Grain of Sand

Abstract

The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero, Robert Kaplan, Oxford University Press, England, 1999, 256 pp., ISBN 0‐19‐512842‐7, $22.Covering four millennia and drawing from sources as eclectic as they are insightful, Robert Kaplan, a former Harvard mathematics professor, weaves a lively tale about the concept of zero. It is not so much a history book as it is a primer on zero—its genesis, etymology, representation, use, and ramifications. Artfully blending historiography with ample philosophical musings and literary references, Kaplan shows how various human civilizations grappled with the vexing paradox of having to conceptualize the notion of nothingness. From the Sumerians (whose creation of a positional system lead to a zero marker) to the Mayans (whose God of Death, Zero, had to be appeased by human sacrifice lest time itself would end) to medieval merchant Europe (where, believe it or not, accountants brought about the adoption of the concept of zero), Kaplan does an admirable job in conveying t...