Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:07:50.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Existence Puzzles and Probabilistic Explanations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

TYRON GOLDSCHMIDT
TYRON GOLDSCHMIDT*
Affiliation:
WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Why is there something rather than nothing? Robert Nozick and Peter van Inwagen have proposed a probabilistic answer: there are more ways there could have been something than ways there could have been nothing; each has an equal intrinsic probability of obtaining; and so there being something is intrinsically more probable. The author presents a few original objections to this line of thinking, focusing especially on the kinds of probability it invokes. The author also sketches a more promising probabilistic answer, one that makes relevant scientific and theological considerations that are usually quickly dismissed in this context.

Keywords

existenceprobabilityconcrete beingsmetaphysics
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , Fall 2016 , pp. 469 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albert, D. (2012) ‘On the Origins of Everything’. New York Times (March 25): BR20.Google Scholar
Baldwin, T. (1996) ‘There Might Be Nothing’. Analysis, 56, 231–38.Google Scholar
Carlson, E., and Olson, E.. (2001) ‘The Presumption of Nothingness’. Ratio, 14, 203–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandler, H. (1976) ‘Plantinga and the Contingently Possible’. Analysis, 36, 106–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, R. (1995) ‘Authoritarian Epistemology’. Philosophical Topics, 23, 147–69.Google Scholar
Hájek, A. (n.d.) ‘Staying Regular’. Unpublished ms.Google Scholar
Hemmo, M., and Shenker, O.. (2010) ‘Measures over Initial Conditions’. In Ben-Menahem, Y. and Hemmo, M. (eds.), Probability in Physics (Heidelberg: Springer), 87–98.Google Scholar
Kotzen, M. (2013) ‘The Probabilistic Explanation of Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing’. In Goldschmidt, T. (ed.), The Puzzle of Existence: Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing? (London: Routledge), 215–34.Google Scholar
Krauss, L. M. (2012) A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. W. ([1714]1989) Philosophical Essays. Translated by R. Ariew and D. Garber. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Leslie, J. (2001) Infinite Minds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. K. (1986) On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. (1998) The Possibility of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. (2002) A Survey of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mawson, T. J. (2009) ‘Why Is There Anything At All?’ In Nagasawa, Y. and Wielenberg, E. J. (eds.), New Waves in Philosophy of Religion (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan), 36–54.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. (1981) Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schaffer, J. (2007) ‘Deterministic Chance?’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 58, 113–40.Google Scholar
Stenger, V. (2007) God: The Failed Hypothesis. Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. (1991) The Existence of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. (2004) The Existence of God. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (1990) Material Beings. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (1996) ‘Why Is There Anything at All?’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supp. vol. 70, 95–110.Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (1998) ‘Probability and Evil’. In Inwagen, P. van (ed.), The Possibility of Resurrection and Other Essays in Christian Apologetics (Boulder, CO: Westview Press), 69–87.Google Scholar
Wilczek, F. (1989) ‘The Cosmic Asymmetry between Matter and Antimatter’. In Carrigan, R. J. and Trower, W. P. (eds.), Particle Physics and the Cosmos: Readings from American Scientific Magazine (New York: Freeman), 164–77.Google Scholar