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Single Idea 19662

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

Full Idea

It is necessary that there be something rather than nothing because it is necessarily contingent that there is something rather than something else.

Gist of Idea

It is necessarily contingent that there is one thing rather than another - so something must exist

Source

Quentin Meillassoux (After Finitude; the necessity of contingency [2006], 3)

Book Ref

Meillassoux: 'After Finitude: the necessity of contingency', ed/tr. Brassier,R [Bloomsbury 2008], p.76

A Reaction

The great charm of metaphysics is the array of serious answers to the question of why there is something rather than nothing. You'll need to read Meillassoux's book to understand this one.

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.]