ABSTRACT

A positive response to the question of why anything exists is one that treats it as a serious and legitimate inquiry for which some kind of systematic explanation can and ought to be constructed. This contrasts with the deflationary response in that it refuses to treat existence as a brute fact and instead claims that it is an intelligible fact which demands an intelligible explanation. However, although this approach to the question takes a more directly explanatory path on the intellectual level, it does not tend to leave the mind in a condition of complete satisfaction. The emotions that arise from the endeavour to answer the question are no less intense and profound than those which leave it unanswered.