You can only compare two like things--nouns to nouns, adjectives to adjectives. > > Nothing is not a 'thing,' which is exactly why East trumps West in its discussion. Nothing is less than a "placeholder," the mathematical "Empty Set." An adjective presupposes the existence of the thing to which it describes, therefore "Universe" and "Nothing" are not separate entities.-My problem with your statement is that 'nothing' in the collegiate dictionary is a pronoun, not an adjective. Besides it is primarily Leibniz' question not mine. I simply repeated the statement to open a discussion.