Colin McGinn - Why is There Anything at All?

Why is there a world, a cosmos, something, anything instead of absolutely nothing at all? If nothing existed, there would be nothing to explain. That anything exists demands some kind of explanation. Of all the big questions, this is the biggest. Why anything? Why not nothing? What can we learn from the absence of nothing?



Colin McGinn is a British philosopher, currently Professor of Philosophy and Cooper Fellow at the University of Miami.


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.

[a.lorenz]

I like the exestentional questions and thinking of Dr. Kuhn so much. His research is always based on arguments which touch us permanently

[jairofonseca]

This is why St. Thomas Aquinas is so important philosopher: First Cause is imperative, a wall no one can ever cross.

[chrisgarret]

"That's just the way things are" is the least scientific statement I've ever seen on this channel.

[jc]

I think the more interesting aspect to the question is what happens when you try to contemplate nothing ever existing... you're faced with the realisation that it is impossible and your brain starts to throb and contort on itself in an existential spiral of doom. What's that about?

[justmenate]

"but why?!" .... "because I said so!"

[KL-mkyn]

Fascinating discussion. Also, this channel constantly reminds me how dumb I am, lol.

[sinisterintentions]

I know why there's something rather than nothing, nothing is impossible, nothing can't exist because even nothingness is something, something exists simply because nothing can't.

[optikon]

abstract things do not exist necessarily. They first require a mind or a framework to have a meaning.

[shinobix]

And what placed those basic laws there? Us humans aren't capable enough to dive deeper to those depths of philosophy. Or simple perhaps haven't evolved enough yet.

[brianlebreton]

Exodus 3:14 Tell them it is “I Am” that sent you. I think “Amness”, if you will, is the most fundamental axiom. Logic, laws, and all other axioms require an “Amness” foundation.

[diegocabralrincon]

Dr Khun I would humbly suggest you to have a Talk with Jean Pierre Garnier Malet. It's a little narrow-minded to look for answers only from Angloamericans experts.If the French scientific theories fail to Illuminate your mind, then stop looking for answers to your questions about Life origen and purpose because the angloamericans do not know the purpose of life

[stevecoley]

Metaphysics
Here on earth like it is in heaven.

Darkness (business) exists so that stars (light and warmth) have a place to shine in heaven (joy, beauty and harmony).

Stars like US don't exist to be sucked out of heaven by a giant black hole in space called "greed" and its ignorance (hate).

Also, Love spent billions of years creating this paradise planet lifeboat so that her miraculous works of fine art called "life" have a beautiful place to "be".

Good (god) didn't spend so much time creating this paradise planet lifeboat to be depreciated, polluted and destroyed in a brief moment by hostile alien vampires (greed) and thier ignorance (hate).

[dwightlilly]

A nice play with words but a ridiculous argument. EVERYTHING has a cause, what good would it be to say laws and math/numbers exist but that they have a caveat when it comes to existence. A waste of time watching this video that can never be recaptured.

[dkimphoto]

Sorry to say it folks. Here’s an argument for the existence of God. However, his reasoning isn’t very convincing. “It’s just the way it is.” I expect more from science.

[markberman]

Does not being able to understand a thing, as humans, mean such a thing does not exist. Of course not. Is it possible we are designed to not know some things because if we did it would alter the nature of choice and free will and thus break the probability exercise of a thing beyond us? Is infinity really infinity in a universe operating upon a timeline or are we not yet there enough to see it.

Some things are not meant to be understood. Very hard for rational minds to accept, hence rationalism always fails in the end. Many, many, many things are beyond maths. Does that imply they do not exist? No, rather it implies that there are still many things we do not yet understand. Nothing mystical about that, Celts did not have AK-47s. Seems a dumb thing to say no? Yet utterly relevant to the conversation. We can bring things that do not exist into existence and always have, as we gain more knowledge along the line. And some times we forget the existence of things along the line, that forgetting, however, does not remove them from existence, it just removes them from collective memory.

Talking in circles eventually becomes a straight line, like time is a straight line. Bendable, yet still with an end date.

Great conversation, thanks.

[millenialmusings]

Like a lot of questions in philosophy and metaphysics, this is a fake question. Fake questions are those that are specious and whose answers are irrelevant.

I'm with Elon musk on this. He quoted the Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy in which the message is that we don't know what the right questions to ask are.

That's the real quest - to figure out the right questions - whose answers are consequential. Not all questions are created equal. We should learn to question the question.

[maxwellsimoes]

Guys Not explains everything instead he shows up "everything " is abstract rethoric. In this sense it not philosophy or Science but only baseless speculations. Model true in phich or Science needs intergraty minds he keep out them.

[Brajgamer]

This is a question where there is no need to analyse the question itself, its right there on your face. It's the mother of all questions.

[stevebarlow]

Love this channel but this guy just talks bollocks.

[Irisphotojournal]

The fact that we desire an answer to the question doesnt mean there has to be one we are capable of understanding.