I've studied mathematical philosophy extensively for many years, Scott, and I know the history of the zero perfectly well. In my comment about the Persians I was merely responding to your comments about its history in European thought. In fact the Persians inherited the zero from the Hindus and there's no suggestion that the Hindus were the inventors of it either. The Mayans and Incas also had a similar construct although they applied it somewhat differently. However a consistent thread of reasoning runs through all of these ancient schools of mathematical philosophy which links the notion of zero with nothingness and nothingness is uniformly represented as the absence of somethingness. Nothing and something are universally seen as antonymous constructs which cannot coexist.Scott Mayers wrote:It was understood and used long before it.
I'm well aware of the fact that you don't share this view but I resent the suggestion that I am the one espousing some sort of unorthodox posture here. You're the one defending the minority position and the convention in philosophy is that the burden of the argument therefore lies with you. Thus far you have made no case.