Mystery of Existence

John Leslie is University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Guelph, Canada, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual and the creator and host of Closer To Truth, the long-running PBS / public television series on science and philosophy.

“In this deep and thoughtful book, philosopher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Leslie" John Leslie and public sage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lawrence_Kuhn" Robert Lawrence Kuhn organize, integrate, and reassess past and current ideas about this most compelling of metaphysical questions.” (Metapsychology, 13 August 2013)“And now John Leslie and Robert Lawrence Kuhn have published http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470673559/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p14_d0_i3The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything At All?, a very useful anthology of classic and contemporary readings.”  (First Things, 24 July 2013)“Read the book by all means.  It's well written.  Inevitably. After all its contributors number the greatest brains known to man.  But I think it has been misnamed.  The Mystery of Existence. (There really isn't anything to concern us.).” (New Nurturing Potential, 1 July 2013)“I certainly recommend it, but it is not the sort of book you would buy to read in the train.” (Magonia Blog, 6 June 2013)"Their book, which I would recommend highly to students, researchers or indeed anyone with a curiosity about or stimulated by these deepest of questions, offers an abundance of suggestions for further reading and research on this inexhaustible topic."(Mysterious Planet, 1 June 2013)

• About the Editors viiAcknowledgments viii1 General Introduction 12 Some Quotations 13Leibniz, Kant 13Schopenhauer, William James, George Santayana, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, J.J.C. Smart 14John A. Wheeler, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg 153 Possible Responses to “Why Anything?” 16Nicholas Rescher 164 First Solution: A Blank is Absurd 18Editorial Introduction 18F.H. Bradley, Henri Bergson 24Bede Rundle 25David Lewis 26Peter Unger 30Steven Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow 395 Second Solution: No Explanation Needed 41Editorial Introduction 41Epicurus 46David Hume 47Fred Hoyle 49W.B. Bonnor 51Bertrand Russell and F.C. Copleston 53Adolf Grünbaum 566 Third Solution: Chance 71Editorial Introduction 71Alan H. Guth 77Stephen Hawking 82Alex Vilenkin 90Martin Rees 98Peter van Inwagen 987 Fourth Solution: Value/Perfection as Ultimate 101Editorial Introduction 101Plato 109Aristotle 110Plotinus 111St. Thomas Aquinas 112St. Anselm 113René Descartes 114Alvin Plantinga 115Benedict Spinoza 118Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 119G.W.F. Hegel 122A.C. Ewing 123Keith Ward 125John Polkinghorne 125John Leslie 1268 Fifth Solution: Mind/Consciousness as Ultimate 142Editorial Introduction 142Richard Swinburne 147Timothy O’Connor 153William Lane Craig 155Sayyed Hossein Nasr 159Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV 160Andrei Linde 161Paul Davies 1639 Fine-Tuning and Multiple Universes 171Editorial Introduction 171John Polkinghorne 178Leonard Susskind 189Steven Weinberg 192Max Tegmark 194Robin A. Collins 20710 The Problem Seems Genuine 211Editorial Introduction 211Derek Parfit 220Robert Nozick 238Robert Lawrence Kuhn 246Michael Heller 278Nicholas Rescher 284Bibliography and Further Reading 289Index of Names 310Index of Concepts 313