Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story

Name: Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780871403599

ISBN-10: 0871403595

ISBN-13: 9780871403599

Edition: N/A

Authors: Jim Holt

List price: $16.95

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Description:

Tackling the “darkest question in all of philosophy” with “raffish erudition” (Dwight Garner, New York Times), author Jim Holt explores the greatest metaphysical mystery of all: why is there something rather than nothing? This runaway bestseller, which has captured the imagination of critics and the public alike, traces our latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. Holt adopts the role of cosmological detective, traveling the globe to interview a host of celebrated scientists, philosophers, and writers, “testing the contentions of one against the theories of the other” (Jeremy Bernstein, Wall Street Journal). As he interrogates his list of ontological culprits, the brilliant yet…

Book details

List price: $16.95
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date: 4/8/2013
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 320
Size: 5.50" wide x 8.25" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 0.550
Language: English



Prologue: A Quick Proof That There Must Be Something Rather Than Nothing, for Modern People Who Lead Busy Lives



Confronting the Mystery


Interlude: Could Our World Have Been Created by a Hacker?



Philosophical Tour d'Horizon


Interlude: The Arithmetic of Nothingness



A Brief History of Nothing



The Great Rejectionist



Finite or Infinite?


Interlude: Night Thoughts at the Cafe de Flore



The Inductive Theist of North Oxford


Interlude: The Supreme Brute Fact



The Magus of the Multiverse


Interlude: The End of Explanation



The Ultimate Free Lunch?


Interlude: Nausea



Waiting for the Final Theory


Interlude: A Word on Many Worlds



Platonic Reflections


Interlude: It from Bit



"The Ethical Requiredness of There Being Something"


Interlude: An Hegelian in Paris



The Last Word from All Souls


Epistolary Interlude: The Proof



The World as a Bit of Light Verse



The Self: Do I Really Exist?



Return to Nothingness


Epilogue: Over the Seine


Acknowledgments


Notes


Index