Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Author: Leszek Kolakowski

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2007-11-20

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0465010385

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Do we have free will? How can we know anything? What is justice? Why is there evil in the world? What is the source of truth? Is it possible for God not to exist? Can we really believe what we see? These are some of the questions that have intrigued the world's greatest thinkers over the ages. They are questions that make us think about the way we live, work, relate to each other, and see the world. In elegant and accessible prose, the eminent philosopher Leszek Kolakowski explores the essence of these ideas and their ongoing relevance as he introduces us to the great figures of Western thought: from Socrates to St. Augustine, Descartes to Nietzsche, and beyond. Reflecting on the great issues that animate our lives -- good and evil, truth and beauty, faith and the soul, free will and consciousness -- Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? offers a guided tour of Western philosophy by one of the world's greatest living experts.

Why Does the World Exist
Why Does the World Exist

Author: Jim Holt

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2012-07-17

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0871404095

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In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.

A Universe from Nothing
A Universe from Nothing

Author: Lawrence Maxwell Krauss

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 145162445X

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This is a provocative account of the astounding new answers to the most basic philosophical question: Where did the universe come from and how will it end?

The Puzzle of Existence
The Puzzle of Existence

Author: Tyron Goldschmidt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-05

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1136249222

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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.

Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing
Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing

Author: Bede Rundle

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0199270503

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This work offers an explanation of fundamental facts of existence in purely philosophical terms, without appeal either to theology or cosmology. It will provoke and intrigue anyone who wonders about these questions.

The Ultimate Why Question
The Ultimate Why Question

Author: John F. Wippel

Publisher: CUA Press

Published: 2011-06-08

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0813218632

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This volume gathers studies by prominent scholars and philosophers about the question how have major figures from the history of philosophy, and some contemporary philosophers, addressed "the ultimate why question": why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?

The Ages of the World
The Ages of the World

Author: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780791444177

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Schelling's never completed "masterpiece", translated here with an introduction covering Schelling's life, other works, and a brief analysis of The Ages of the World by Wirth (philosophy, Ogelthorpe U.), explores the question of time as the relationship between poetry and philosophy. Contemporary philosophers herald this work as a predecessor to the modern debates about post-modernity and the limits of dialectical thinking.

The Mystery of Existence
The Mystery of Existence

Author: John Leslie

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-04-22

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0470673559

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This compelling study of the origins of all that exists, including explanations of the entire material world, traces the responses of philosophers and scientists to the most elemental and haunting question of all: why is anything here—or anything anywhere? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why not nothing? It includes the thoughts of dozens of luminaries from Plato and Aristotle to Aquinas and Leibniz to modern thinkers such as physicists Stephen Hawking and Steven Weinberg, philosophers Robert Nozick and Derek Parfit, philosophers of religion Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne, and the Dalai Lama. The first accessible volume to cover a wide range of possible reasons for the existence of all reality, from over 50 renowned thinkers, including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Bertrand Russell, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Robert Nozick, Derek Parfit, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, John Polkinghorne, Paul Davies, and the Dalai Lama Features insights by scientists, philosophers, and theologians Includes informative and helpful editorial introductions to each section Provides a wealth of suggestions for further reading and research Presents material that is both comprehensive and comprehensible

The Vindication of Nothingness
The Vindication of Nothingness

Author: Marco Simionato

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2021-11-17

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 3868385878

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The philosophical question of nothingness has often been controversial. The main core of the question is the use of ‘nothing’ or ‘nothingness’ as a noun phrase rather than a quantifier phrase. This work deals with the question of nothingness and metaphysical nihilism in analytic philosophy. After evaluating an account of nothingness based on the notion of an empty possible world, the present work proposes two original arguments for metaphysical nihilism. With a preface by Graham Priest. “Simionato’s book delivers a welcome deepening of our understanding of nothing.” Graham Priest

The Felt Meanings of the World
The Felt Meanings of the World

Author: Quentin Smith

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9780911198768

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In a critical dialogue with the metaphysical tradition from Plato to Hegel to contemporary schools of thought, the author convincingly argues that traditional rationalist metaphysics has failed to accomplish its goal of demonstrating the existence of a divine cause and moral purpose of the world. To replace the defective rationalist metaphysics, the author builds a new metaphysics on the idea that moods and affects make manifest the world's felt meanings; he argues that each feature of the world is a felt meaning in the sense that each feature is a source of a feeling-response if and when it appears. The author asserts that we must synthesize our two ways of knowing-poetic evocations and exact analyses-in order to decide which mood or affect is the appropriate appreciation of any given feature of the world. Smith gives evocative and exact explications of such features as the world's temporality, appearance, and mind-independency, as these features appear in the appropriate recitations.