Is a void where the laws of physics hold actually a void?

Question

I don't have much background in Cosmology, but an argument I've heard is that the universe sprang into existence from the void via a quantum fluctuation. That is both spacetime & its matter/energy content - aka the big bang.

Without going into the scientific truth and plausability of this hypothesis what piques my curiousity here is what is actually meant here by void?

Can one call a void in which the laws of physics hold a void? For surely something 'is' there - the laws of physics.

Surely an actually void, that is something that is properly nothing, will be void of any laws whatsoever?

In this sense, is it then correct to say that the gap between the void & the world remains unbridged?

Answer 1

Question here should be: what is meant by void? And what is the status of being of the laws of physics?

For example, if you mean a vacuum, a vacuum is space empty of matter. As laws of physics are not considered matter, there 'are' not in it. Usually, however, in Big Bang-theories, space expands, so it occurs not from a void, but from a point.

Secondly, how 'are' laws of physics? Only in the mind of the subject or objective ('Platonic')?

Answer 2

When we say that the universe "sprang into existence from the void", we don't mean that there was some void-thing or void-place there before spacetime from which the universe emerged. We mean that there wasn't anything yet before certain point, i.e. there was neither anywhere/anywhen for the laws of physics to hold "in" yet, nor anything for them to hold about.