John Leslie - Why is There 'Something' Rather than 'Nothing'?

Here’s the ultimate question: what if it were true that everything always and forever had been ‘nothing’? Imagine that not a single thing ever existed–not emptiness, not blankness, not even the existence of emptiness, or the meaning of blankness. If you can image that, now ask yourself: why is there anything at all?

John Andrew Leslie is a Canadian philosopher who focuses on explaining the world’s existence. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he earned a BA in Psychology and Philosophy, then an MLitt in Philosophy. He is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[gallinho]

I feel like people never take the idea of absolute nothing seriously enough.
This guy talks about possibilities still existing in nothing but to me there would be no possibility of anything.
Trying to wrap your head around the idea of absolute nothing is far more challenging than thinking about infinity or eternity imo.

[zenmite]

Like many of you, I've watched Robert visit and revisit this question over the years. It may be that this question functions for him as the ultimate question...he says as much in this video. It was also one of my existential questions as a teen. Other questions like this are, 'What is Reality? Who am I? Where will I go after I die? Where was I before I was born?' If this is true, Robert will never find any satisfying answer from outside himself. He can ask all the great scientists, gurus, theologians, or philosophers, yet none of their answers will satisfy him. He will need to find it for himself. Just my 2 cents.

[davidcrocker]

Nothing has no meaning without something. They define one another. Any thing is defined by everything and is therefore not a thing😊

[AhlusSunnahwalJamah]

I can demonstrate nothingness exists. Just look at my bank account.

[Promatheos]

“Why” questions are with “because” answers. If your because refers to yet another something, you’re back where you started.

In other words, the only thing that can be a solution to why are there things will also be a thing.

[jimliu]

The universe periodically blinks into existence for a short while, then goes back to non existence…..

Our current universe is just one of these brief blinks..

Overall, the vast, vast majority of the time….there is Nothing….

[moychi]

4 or 5 years young i panicked asking this question i was barely a five year old child❤

[newtonfinn]

That there is something rather than nothing is either a gift or a brute fact. Same goes for why I am something rather than nothing. The difference between the spiritual person and the atheist is that only the former can feel gratitude. The best the latter can do is feel lucky.

[hemlock]

Heidegger saw this as the leading / fundamental question of metaphysics / philosophy, not because he thought on objective answer or purpose existed, which he saw as a misunderstanding of human being. But Carnap et al mocked him for seeing significance in 'the Nothing', despite how it has a role in how we understand 'being'.

[jvaldez]

I think the aregument is that lacking all possibilities would be something into of itself, therefore impossible. 0-0=0 is still something because it is a formula somewhere that came from something somewhere.

[ptv]

Here's my development on top of your "why something rather than nothing+some rules?"

Assume those rules and relationships include an ultimate goal for every "something". A sci-fiction example of this goal could be to achieve a special technology created by creatures in that world.

Now the question becomes: Why "to achieve this ultimate goal through this something" rather than nothing?
It seemed interesting to me.

Now we can make this model a bit more general. Like:
- having multiple choices of the ultimate goal, letting that "something world" come up with itself
- adding the probability of achieving the ultimate goal. If not achieved, restart the universe with new parameters.

Of course, a big assumption and question is: What are the ultimate goals of our world, if any goal at all?

[Nouvellecosse]

Well there used to be nothing. Unfortunately it's a finite resource that was over-exploited to satisfy the demand for nothing burgers which are considered a delicacy in some cultures.

[Andrew-ryiw]

If there was nothing there would be no question

[SeanWoodard-uh]

The only answer I ever come across is that at the beginning there were theoretically equal amounts of matter and anti-matter particles, but there must have been a slightly higher amount of matter. When the matter and ant-matter particles interacted, they annihilated each other, leaving behind the extra matter particles that eventually coalesced to form the stars and planets, etc.

[mobiustrip]

I love the way these two are asking questions and discussing answers as if they are separate entities from the universe 😂 As if they are independently self existing beings😂😂😂

[helisoma]

dealing with nothing makes it something

[SubTroppo]

The phrase that always leap to my mind in listening to these kind of conversations is "bounded rationality" which begs the question what are the bounds of un-bounded rationality? Astrophysicists seem (in their thinking) to be 'operating' well outside the bounds of rationality given the concatenation of assumptions and the fact that their theories are merely based (at the simplest level) on radiation reflecting from metal.

[arthurwieczorek]

That question, Why is there something rather than nothing? is more than a simple question. It assumes things, or it may assume things. To really answer the question one has to make explicit what the question is, or may be, assuming.

[georgejo]

Metaphysically nothing is absolute and singular, something is infinitely variable.

[mogleyify]

I feel at the very least, there would have to be the possibility that nothing exists. That's as close to nothing as possible as I see it