ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|21 pages

Introduction

Understanding the Question

chapter 7|18 pages

Conceiving Absolute Greatness

chapter 8|16 pages

A Proof of God's Reality

chapter 10|15 pages

Contingency

chapter 11|15 pages

Metaphysical Nihilism Revisited

chapter 12|18 pages

The Subtraction Arguments for Metaphysical Nihilism

Compared and Defended

chapter 14|17 pages

Are Some Things Naturally Necessary?

chapter 15|20 pages

Questioning the Question