more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 19428

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 5. Reason for Existence ]

Full Idea

From the very fact that something exists rather than nothing, we recognise that there is in possible things, that is, in the very possibility or essence, a certain exigent need of existence, and, so to speak, some claim to existence.

Gist of Idea

Because something does exist, there must be a drive in possible things towards existence

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (On the Ultimate Origination of Things [1697], p.347)

Book Ref

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.347

A Reaction

I love the fact that Leibniz tried to explain why there is something rather than nothing. Bede Rundle and Dale Jacquette are similar heroes. As Leibniz tells us, contradictions have no claim to existence, but non-contradictions do.

The 18 ideas with the same theme [why do things (or anything at all) exist?]:

458 Nothing could come out of nothing, and existence could never completely cease [Empedocles]
1707 Maybe necessity and non-necessity are the first principles of ontology [Aristotle]
17179 There must always be a reason or cause why some triangle does or does not exist [Spinoza]
19400 Possibles demand existence, so as many of them as possible must actually exist [Leibniz]
19401 God's sufficient reason for choosing reality is in the fitness or perfection of possibilities [Leibniz]
5062 First: there must be reasons; Second: why anything at all?; Third: why this? [Leibniz]
7696 Leibniz first asked 'why is there something rather than nothing?' [Leibniz, by Jacquette]
19341 There must be a straining towards existence in the essence of all possible things [Leibniz]
19428 Because something does exist, there must be a drive in possible things towards existence [Leibniz]
3942 I do not believe in the existence of anything, if I see no reason to believe it [Berkeley]
5646 Hegel gives an ontological proof of the existence of everything [Hegel, by Scruton]
16007 I assume existence, rather than reasoning towards it [Kierkegaard]
7692 Being is maximal consistency [Jacquette]
7687 Existence is completeness and consistency [Jacquette]
19662 It is necessarily contingent that there is one thing rather than another - so something must exist [Meillassoux]
17320 Either p is true or not-p is true, so something is true, so something exists [Liggins]
19482 Current physics says matter and antimatter should have reduced to light at the big bang [New Sci.]
19483 CP violation shows a decay imbalance in matter and antimatter, leading to matter's dominance [New Sci.]