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, Pau
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“In this deep and thoughtful book, philosopher John Leslie and public sage Robert Lawrence Kuhnorganize, integrate, and reassess past and current ideas about this most compelling of metaphysical questions.” (Metapsychology, 13 August 2013)
“And now John Leslie and Robert Lawrence Kuhn have published The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything At All?, a very useful anthology of classic and contemporary readings.” (First Things, 24 July 2013)
“Read the book by all means. It's well written. Inevitably. After all its contributors number the greatest brains known to man. But I think it has been misnamed. The Mystery of Existence. (There really isn't anything to concern us.).” (New Nurturing Potential, 1 July 2013)
“I certainly recommend it, but it is not the sort of book you would buy to read in the train.” (Magonia Blog, 6 June 2013)
"Their book, which I would recommend highly to students, researchers or indeed anyone with a curiosity about or stimulated by these deepest of questions, offers an abundance of suggestions for further reading and research on this inexhaustible topic." (Mysterious Planet, 1 June 2013)
Table of Contents
About the Editors vii
Acknowledgments viii
1 General Introduction 1
2 Some Quotations 13
Leibniz, Kant 13
Schopenhauer, William James, George Santayana, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, J.J.C. Smart 14
John A. Wheeler, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg 15
3 Possible Responses to “Why Anything?” 16
Nicholas Rescher 16
4 First Solution: A Blank is Absurd 18
Editorial Introduction 18
F.H. Bradley, Henri Bergson 24
Bede Rundle 25
David Lewis 26
Peter Unger 30
Steven Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow 39
5 Second Solution: No Explanation Needed 41
Editorial Introduction 41
Epicurus 46
David Hume 47
Fred Hoyle 49
W.B. Bonnor 51
Bertrand Russell and F.C. Copleston 53
Adolf Grünbaum 56
6 Third Solution: Chance 71
Editorial Introduction 71
Alan H. Guth 77
Stephen Hawking 82
Alex Vilenkin 90
Martin Rees 98
Peter van Inwagen 98
7 Fourth Solution: Value/Perfection as Ultimate 101
Editorial Introduction 101
Plato 109
Aristotle 110
Plotinus 111
St. Thomas Aquinas 112
St. Anselm 113
René Descartes 114
Alvin Plantinga 115
Benedict Spinoza 118
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 119
G.W.F. Hegel 122
A.C. Ewing 123
Keith Ward 125
John Polkinghorne 125
John Leslie 126
8 Fifth Solution: Mind/Consciousness as Ultimate 142
Editorial Introduction 142
Richard Swinburne 147
Timothy O’Connor 153
William Lane Craig 155
Sayyed Hossein Nasr 159
Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV 160
Andrei Linde 161
Paul Davies 163
9 Fine-Tuning and Multiple Universes 171
Editorial Introduction 171
John Polkinghorne 178
Leonard Susskind 189
Steven Weinberg 192
Max Tegmark 194
Robin A. Collins 207
10 The Problem Seems Genuine 211
Editorial Introduction 211
Derek Parfit 220
Robert Nozick 238
Robert Lawrence Kuhn 246
Michael Heller 278
Nicholas Rescher 284
Bibliography and Further Reading 289
Index of Names 310
Index of Concepts 313
