Book

Holt, Jim, 1954-

Why does the world exist? : an existential detective story / Jim Holt.

1st ed.

New York : Liveright Pub. Corp., ©2012.

vi, 309 pages ; 25 cm

Why is there a world rather than nothing at all? This question remains the most curious and most enduring of all metaphysical mysteries. Moving away from the narrower paths of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking who insist that science alone is capable of explaining how our cosmos came into being, the author enters this debate as he examines our efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. He takes on the role of cosmological detective, and traces the riddle of existence from the ancient world to modern times, suggesting that we might have been too narrow in limiting our suspects to God and the Big Bang theory.

Cosmology.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-294) and index.

A quick proof that there must be something rather than nothing, for modern people who lead busy lives -- Confronting the mystery -- Could our world have been created by a hacker? -- Philosophical tour d'horizon -- The arithmetic of nothingness -- A brief history of nothing -- The Great Rejectionist -- Finite or infinite? -- Night thoughts at the Café de Flore -- The inductive theist of North Oxford -- The supreme brute fact -- The Magus of the Multiverse -- The end of explanation -- The ultimate free lunch? -- Nausea -- Waiting for the final theory -- A word on many worlds -- Platonic reflections -- It from bit -- "The ethical requiredness of there being something" -- An Hegelian in Paris -- The last word from All Souls -- Epistolary interlude: The proof -- The world as a bit of light verse -- The self: do I really exist? -- Return to nothingness -- Over the Seine.

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