Why Does Anything Exist? In Search of the Best Possible Answer

Rasmussen develops a new answer to the question, "Why does anything exist?" He begins by describing a puzzle about how anything can exist. The puzzle motivates the quest to explain things as far as one can. To solve the puzzle, Rasmussen describes a sequence of scenes in a story about exis...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:"Essays in Honour of Dean Zimmerman"
Main Author: Rasmussen, Joshua (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, Université Catholique de Louvain 2024
In: TheoLogica
Year: 2024, Volume: 8, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-14
IxTheo Classification:FA Theology
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Principle of sufficient reason
B Puzzle of existence
B Naturalism
B Absolute perfection
B Argument from contingency
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Description
Summary:Rasmussen develops a new answer to the question, "Why does anything exist?" He begins by describing a puzzle about how anything can exist. The puzzle motivates the quest to explain things as far as one can. To solve the puzzle, Rasmussen describes a sequence of scenes in a story about existence. The story brings to light a three-pronged explanation of existence: (i) things exist because it is impossible for nothing to have existed, (ii) it is impossible for nothing to have existed because there is a foundational reality that cannot not exist, and (iii) such a foundation would have a certain nature—to be specified—that allows it to be foundational. Rasmussen considers how this theory of fundamental reality can incorporate other large scale theories, including Platonism, axiarchism, and naturalism.
ISSN:2593-0265
Contains:Enthalten in: TheoLogica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.14428/thl.v8i2.77433