Don Page - Why is There ‘Something’ Rather than ‘Nothing’?

We know that there is not Nothing. There is Something. It is not the case that there is no world, nothing at all, a blank. It is the case that there is a world. Nothing did not obtain. But why? Why hasn’t Nothing obtained? Is this ‘ultimate question’ a legitimate question? What can science contribute? What can philosophy?

Don N. Page is a Canadian theoretical physicist at the University of Alberta, 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.

[kevinhaynes]

I'm finding it increasingly difficult, and sad, to watch and listen to Robert trying to get 'closer to truth', but ending up ever further away from it. This episode singularly failed to address, let alone answer, the proposed question 'why is there something rather than nothing?'.
Perhaps he should have started by asking whether our lexicon of words, including 'something' and 'nothing' are even up to such a task. A limited vocabulary can only ever provide a limited understanding...

[votingcitizen]

Depending on unfounded beliefs of intentionality, awareness and "what's best" is not a way to get closer to truth.

[landspide]

But, nothing is something... Therefore there is only something, nothing is only ever bounded.

[timschmitt]

Unfortunately the question in the title was not really addressed.
It is basically a conversation about religion.

[yaekonobuo]

I want to see what RLC has as an update on his conclusions to these big questions, including what he now views as meaningful questions

[cloudysunset]

a contest of chin wagging vs hand waving signifying nothing.

[streamofconsciousness]

There was Nothing, probably for a eternity, (but even Time did not exists to measure that), now there is Everything. Can the System go back to Nothing ever again.
God, if there is one there has to be a point even before Him, and then the question, where did He come from? Why was he not content to just Dream. And where did He get the Materials to build the Universe.

[markospeck]

My 2 cents is the universe exists because nothingness is unstable and is always trying to be somethingness. Where that leads, who knows?

[robotaholic]

Just because cause and effect are consistent within our universe does not mean it works the same way for the entire universe itself. Just like times shorter than the plank time aren't coherent, cause and effect as we see it possibly doesn't hold up at cosmic scales. Just be honest and say we don't know when we don't know.

[da]

Well, if you want to ask why is there something instead of nothing, you have to first explain why it's not obvious that there should be something. In other words, when in our experience, has nothing been an occurrence? The question implies that something is an option, and the nothing is an option. How is nothing an option? What would that look like? If you can't define that, there is no question to be asked.

[frederickkoons]

Consider the paradoxical statement, “Nothing exists.” Suppose we assume the negative, that nothing means the absence of everything including space, then nothing means nonexistence. Then our paradoxical statement becomes “nonexistence exists” an obvious contradiction. This means that non-existence cannot exist and hence existence is infinite.
If we assume the positive in our paradoxical statement, “Nothing exists” then “nothing” is something that exists, and before the beginning of the universe the something that existed is pure existence and/or Absolute Being. The pre-universe must have had the characteristic of space, that existential emptiness of dimensionality. Anything greater than a point has dimensionality and thus existence. But if there is any existence, however small, there must be infinite existence because non-existence cannot exist beyond whatever exists. And it must be spatial, the simplest imaginable existence.

[ronhudson]

The question is meaningless. Nothing IS a definable state. No time, no space, no energy, no change. a definable something. Further, the nothingness referred to, IS "God". A reality outside of time, space etc. from which everything springs. God must allow for free-will, otherwise our lives are meaningless. We are absolved of all responsibility for our actions.

[nicolacamposarcone]

I think a really good insight into the nature of the universe is that modern science shows us that the universe tends to have a sort of innate will to self-actualization in always higher and higher forms of existence, that's also why I disagree with the stance of a "purposeless" universe, particles have a purpose, wich is the formation of atoms, atoms have a purpose wich is the formation of molecules, molecules have a purpose wich is the formation of all the matter in the universe, the matter in the universe also has purpose because it creates other stuff, the flying gasses in the cosmic void have a purpose wich is the formation of stars, the storming waters raging on primordial planets have a purpose wich is the creation of life, the purpose of life is its survival, evolution and ascension to higher and more complex forms of life, this makes sense to me, and I also think that we shoukd derive some kind of ethical framework for our societies with this, because if all of this is true then the purpose of humans reaching is a higher form of being...

[DanRad]

God must be asking himself the same question.

[TheFelimon]

Henri Bergson answers this question elegantly. the question why is there something rather than nothing relies on an intuition, a fundamental presupposition that 'nothing' is the base level of reality, of which 'something' is imposed upon. For Bergson, this intuition is misguided, and developed from our lived experience of going from states of nothing to something. e.g being hungry, not having a burger, and then having a burger, and feeling satisfied. this is however, not 'nothing' but is the negation of 'something' I.E a burger. a negation is still 'something'. Nothing does not exist, only absence, and is certainly not a fundamental nature in which something is imposed on. Rather, Nothing is simply a concept in which we have developed.

[Diana_L.]

If nothingness existed, wouldn't that define it as something? It reminds me of that paradox about the set of all sets that don't contain themselves.

[konberner]

In my view, there is no term more important for a real scientist or truth-seeker than, "inconclusive". Many questions have no clear answer and, sometimes, it is best to simply admit that rather than looking for a supposedly scientific God-of-the-gaps.

[kimsahl]

Nothing = something, but nothing is't identical to something.

[johnburke]

The conversation around 5:44 is really interesting

[Nicholas-cdef]

Neoplatonisms explanation for this question is that with regards to the absolute or “the one”, the entire physical cosmos is the attribute of the absolute or its emanation/over flow from itself, hence “the good” is a term used for the one because it gives being to physical reality while itself (the one) is not material or temporal-spatial. The one is the principle or “object of philosophy” while the cosmos is its attribute. It is impossible to conceive of an anything that does not have at least 1 attribute, and god or the one is no different. Principles are self evident or circular axioms the transcend the cause and effect paradigm. It’s only fitting that the reason anything in the material sense exists is because it has an immaterial progeny. If you’ve understood what I’ve tried to explain here, you will then realize the god debate is fundamental and irremovable to any rational mind or society of minds. Creationism and something-from-nothing-ism are both incorrect. Emanationism based upon an immaterial eternal absolute is the only possible philosophical answer to “why does anything exist at all”. Oh and yes, this does mean the cosmos has and will eternally exist.