The Puzzle of Existence: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

ISBN-13: 9780415624657 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 296 str.

Tyron Goldschmidt

Opis

This groundbreaking volume investigates the most fundamental question of all: Why is there something rather than nothing? The question is explored from diverse and radical perspectives: religious, naturalistic, platonistic and skeptical. Does science answer the question? Or does theology? Does everything need an explanation? Or can there be brute, inexplicable facts? Could there have been nothing whatsoever? Or is there any being that could not have failed to exist? Is the question meaningful after all? The volume advances cutting-edge debates in metaphysics, philosophy of cosmology and philosophy of religion, and will intrigue and challenge readers interested in any of these subjects.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: Understanding the Question Tyron Goldschmidt  2. Could There Be a Complete Explanation of Everything? Timothy O'Connor  3. Ultimate Naturalistic Causal Explanations Graham Oppy 4. Explanatory Power and the Principle of Sufficient Reason Shieva Kleinschmidt 5. The Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Grand Inexplicable Jacob Ross 6. Contingency, Dependence, and the Ontology of the Many Christopher Hughes 7. Conceiving Absolute Greatness Earl Conee 8. A Proof of God's Reality John Leslie 9. Metaphysical Nihilism Revisited E.J. Lowe 10. Contingency John Heil  11. Methodological Separatism, Modal Pluralism, and Metaphysical Nihilism David Efird and Tom Stoneham  12. The Subtraction Arguments for Metaphysical Nihilism: Compared and Defended Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra   13. The Probabilistic Explanation of Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing Matthew Kotzen 14. Are Some Things Naturally Necessary? Marc Lange 15. Questioning the Question Stephen Maitzen  16. Ontological Pluralism, the Gradation of Being, and the Question "Why is there Something Rather than Nothing?" Kris McDaniel