Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

[Philosophy Now]

Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the many entrants not included.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/125/Why_Is_There_Something_Rather_Than_Nothing

[bahman]

Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the many entrants not included.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/125/Wh ... an_Nothing

Nothing and something are two different states of affair. Nothing causes nothing. There is something therefore there was something which caused this.

[jayjacobus]

We can't think of nothing by itself. The concept of zero came after the concept of numbers. 1/x approaches zero but never gets there. We can't describe nothing by itself because words don't describe the properties of nothing. Yet, if nothing has properties, nothing seems to be something. Describing no properties is possible if nothing is just potential without any matter or energy. But nothing must have been potential otherwise there would never be anything. But is potential something even if it has no properties? So, where did potential come from?

I don't know. Does space have some hidden potential? Space has no properties, matter or energy. Space is a vast unlimited expanse without a creation. It always existed. No?

If we could create something out of empty space, than space is the source.

[Impenitent]

nothing is never unique

-Imp

[Noax]

I will first comment on Rose Dale's leading entry. I consider this topic to be poorly worded. It is not a criticism of the article, since the topic is typically worded in exactly those words.

Although Heidegger described this as the fundamental question of metaphysics, the answer is quite straightforward at its base, if we are strictly examining a comparison between something and nothing. There is something because there is literally no such thing as nothing (at all), and there possibly never was. Spinoza and Einstein, among many other great thinkers, subscribed to this view that it is impossible for there to be nothing. Nothing is only ever the absence of something in particular, but it is never truly no-thing, since the very label ‘nothing’ implies ‘something’.

The opposite of 'something' is not-something, or not anything. This is different than 'nothing'. Yes, there is literally no such thing as nothing, which seems more analogous to an empty set of what is, leaving still the set itself. Does not-anything need distinction? Distinction is needed for existence, but no claim of existence is made in not-anything, so not-anything seems consistent. A state of not-anything is not consistent since the existence of a state is implied, so one cannot ask why the state is existence of anything rather than not. Careful wording seems to be the order of the day.

As a relativist, I must interpret the question differently. There being something relative to me does not imply objective being. Under pure relativism, there is no concept of objective anything, and thus any statement of the form "there is X" (even if X is 'nothing') is meaningless, not even false.

So my take on the question is one of meaninglessness unless I interpret it in some relative way like 'to me', but not necessarily any particular thing. Idealism is a tiny subset of relativism. Things can be relative to a rock, to a reference frame, or to an integer.

[Atla]

"Something and nothing" has two meanings.

First, something may refer to existence and nothing to non-existence. Existence is structure and nonexistence is lack of structure. They are actually inseparable, human thinking separates reality into the existence/non-existence pair. (Here is where actually deep philosophy starts, the circular structures looping through themselves within the nondual infinitely multiversal reality beyond the existence/nonexistence conceptualization is what leads to the probabilistic solutions about why we humans are here right now, the harder questions of philosophy. But I think the planet will be blown up before Western philosophy advances to such levels of understanding, so seekers of truth have to delve into deep philosophy alone.)

Second, all this whole reality business is still "something" instead of an absolute "nothing". This question has no real answer; reality does not have a cause, origin or purpose. It just is so; reality is there (to the delight of some and disappointment of others).