The Mystery of Existence Why Is There Anything At All?

John Leslie is University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Guelph, Canada, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Well-known in the philosophy of cosmology and religion, he has held visiting professorships at institutions including the Australian National University (Research Department of Philosophy) and the University of Liège (Institute of Astrophysics). He is the author of numerous publications including Value and Existence (Blackwell, 1979), Universes (Routledge, 1989), The End of the World: the Science and Ethics of Human Extinction (Routledge, 1996), Infinite Minds (Oxford University Press, 2001), and Immortality Defended (Blackwell, 2007).

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual and the creator and host of Closer To Truth, the long-running PBS / American public television series on science and philosophy. With a doctorate in brain research (UCLA), he is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief and Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future. A recognized expert on Chinese politics and economics, he is the author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin (Crown, 2005), China’s best-selling book of 2005, and How China’s Leaders Think (Wiley, 2011). He is a frequent commentator for the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, China Central Television (CCTV), and Euronews.

Acknowledgments

1 General Introduction

2 Some Quotations

3 Possible Responses to “Why Anything?”

4 First Solution: A Blank Is Absurd

5 Second Solution: No Explanation Needed

6 Third Solution: Chance 

7 Fourth Solution: Value/Perfection as Ultimate

8 Fifth Solution: Mind/Consciousness as Ultimate

9 Fine-Tuning and Multiple Universes

10 The Problem Seems Genuine

Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading

Index of Names

Index of Concepts

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