Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story (38 page)

It’s a Wonderful Life
(film), 52–53

Jackson, Frank, 191

James, William, 12, 17, 30, 193, 195–96, 200, 209

Jeans, James, 173

Jeremiah, prophet, 101

Jesus of Nazareth, 103, 251

Johnston, Mark, 268–69

Jones, Archilochus, 41

Joyce, James, 3

Judaism, 20

Kant, Immanuel, 21, 48, 65, 82, 196, 261

ontological argument criticized by, 112–13, 116, 119

Kepler, Johannes, 126

Kierkegaard, Søren, 22, 30, 244, 247

Kripke, Saul, 115

“Kubla Khan” (Coleridge), 87

Küng, Hans, 204

Lagerfeld, Karl, 89

language, 188

Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 6

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 7, 20–21, 38–39, 42, 59, 66–67, 68, 69, 71, 86, 91, 93, 104, 109–10, 111, 209, 212, 223, 225

Paris sojourn of, 89–90

and relational view of space, 49

Lemaître, Georges, 25

Lenin, V. I., 26

Leonardo da Vinci, 61

Leslie, John, 197–215, 217, 223, 227, 241, 254

axiarchism of,
see
axiarchism

on God, 204–5

on multiverse, 207

on problem of evil, 202, 212

as subjectivist, 210

writings of, 197–98

Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 188–89

author’s encounter with, 276–77

Lewis, David K., 40, 167

Lichtenberg, Georg, 256

life, 30

Linde, Andrei, 13–16, 166, 197

logic, 20, 57–58, 110, 182

modal, 115–18

nothingness and, 57–58

ontological argument and, 115–18

universally free, 58

logical positivism, 24, 28, 44

London Review of Books,
222

Louis XIV, King of France, 90

Lovejoy, Arthur, 7, 17

Lovell, Bernard, 17

Lucretius, 266

Luria, Aleksandr, 47

Mackie, John, 118, 205

Maimonides, 20

Many Worlds possibility, 225–26

mass-energy conservation, law of, 54, 86–87, 188

“Mathematician’s Nightmare, The” (Russell), 184–85

mathematics, 8

Allegory of the Cave and, 175

applied, 181

atoms and, 187–88

concept of zero in, 36–37, 39

existence and, 8–9, 183–84, 254

finite numbers in, 37

if-then propositions and, 181

and infinity of prime numbers, 181

matter and, 180, 187

mysticism and, 171

in nature, 172–73

Platonists and, 171–72

reality and, 189

regular numbers in, 37

Russell on, 183

theory of sets and, 30, 39–40, 45, 238, 240

truth and, 172, 180–81, 183

matter, 8–9, 22, 48, 50, 75, 97, 139, 165, 168, 183, 185

consciousness and, 73

in inflation theory, 14

mathematics and, 180, 187

Meditations
(Descartes), 253

Mendeleyev, Dmitri, 70

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 219

metaphysics, 28, 31

Metaphysics
(Aristotle), 217

“Metaphysics Explained for You” (Jones), 41

“Midpoint” (Updike), 244

Milky Way galaxy, 84

mind, 8–9, 122

mathematics and matter and, 180

Mind of a Mnemonist, The
(Luria), 47

Miracle of Theism, The
(Mackie), 205

Mitford, Nancy, 88

modal logic, 115–18

monads, 20

Montaigne, 155, 276–77

Moore, G. E., 200

Moreau, Jeanne, 89

Morgenbesser, Sidney, 17, 125

Moses, prophet, 106

Moyers, Bill, 10

multiverse, 84, 121–22, 125–26, 130, 170, 182, 198

axiarchic hypothesis and, 207–8

as bubble universes, 166–69

chaotic inflation theory and, 166, 168–70

cosmic background radiation and, 165, 168

counterfactuals problem and, 167

doubters and critics of, 164–65, 167–69

Leslie on, 207

paradox of Schrödinger’s cat and, 167

parallel worlds in, 135, 165–66, 169

pocket universe and, 158–59

principle of comprehensibility and, 127–28

quantum theory and, 167, 169

spacetime and, 165

Swinburne on, 97–98

Weinberg on, 156–59, 169–70

Munitz, Milton, 58

Mystery of Existence, The
(Munitz), 58

Nagel, Thomas, 73, 191, 192, 194, 210, 257, 158–59, 265

objective self argument of, 262–64

Napoléon I, Emperor of France, 6, 115–16, 264–65

natural selection, 6, 77

Nature of Necessity
(Plantinga), 115

Nature of the Physical World, The
(Eddington), 193

Nausea
(Sartre), 31, 149

New Testament, 101

Newton, Isaac, 6, 20, 25, 38, 49, 71, 82, 109, 140, 184

gravitation theory of, 100, 186–87

laws of, 126

and substantival view of space, 49

Weinberg on theories of, 155–56, 158, 159

Newtonian-Galilean revolution, 126

New York Times,
63, 164–65

nirvana, 31, 269

nothingness, 6, 12, 33, 35, 36–45, 78, 91, 104, 117, 210–11

in Abrahamic tradition, 19

absolute, 21–22, 46–47, 50, 52, 54–59, 69

Being and, 215, 218, 227

Big Bang and, 55

and concept of zero, 36–37, 39

consciousness and, 43, 46–48, 56

container argument and, 48–50

convergent series and, 38

cosmogony and, 19–20

death and,
see
death

definition of, 143

doctrine of creation and, 19–20

empty universe and, 58–59

entropy and, 61

existentialism and, 43–44

Grünbaum on, 69–70

Heidegger on, 43

infinite series and, 38–39

instability of, 140–41

logic and, 57–58

nirvana as state of, 31

nothing and, 45–46

Nozick’s view of, 43–44, 132–33

Null World possibility and, 59–62, 67, 69–70, 71, 75, 77, 234, 236

numbers and, 37

Parfit’s view of, 231–32, 235

Parmenidean line on, 44–45

principle of fecundity and, 135

relativity theory and, 49–50

as self-generating, 41–42

set theory and, 39–40, 45

simplicity principle and, 77

spacetime and, 49–52

spontaneous creation and, 27–28, 140, 142–44

time and, 39

in Updike’s
Roger’s Version, 244–46

vacuum state and, 51–52

Nozick, Robert, 28, 132–36, 159, 231, 232, 241

fecundity principle and,
see
fecundity, principle of

nothingness as viewed by, 43–44, 132–33

on self, 261

self-subsumption principle of, 133–34, 136

Null World possibility, 224–25, 227, 231, 238, 239, 241

nothingness and, 59–62, 67, 69–70, 71, 75, 77, 234, 236

Oblomov
(Goncharov), 254

Occam’s Razor, 76, 168, 189

Oedipus at Colonus
(Sophocles), 255

Old Testament, 101

ontological argument, 132

existence and, 112–13

Kant’s criticism of, 112–13, 116, 119

laws of physics and, 161–62

modal logic and, 115–18

Saint Anselm’s reasoning and, 110–15, 116

Oscillating Universe, 83–84, 87

panpsychism, 194–96

Paradise Lost
(Milton), 212

parallel worlds, 135, 165–66, 169

Parfit, Derek, 73, 221, 226–30, 257, 259–60, 264–65

on cosmic possibilities, 225–27, 232–36

death as viewed by, 269

nothingness as viewed by, 231–32, 235

theory of personal identity of, 222–23

Why?
question approach of, 223–24

Why?
question in author’s correspondence with, 237–42

Parmenides, 41–42, 44–45

Pascal, Blaise, 244

Pauli exclusion principle, 187–88

Peirce, C. S., 9, 170

Penrose, Roger, 34–35, 139, 173, 174–85, 196, 217

on consciousness, 174–75, 178, 185

cosmic censorship hypothesis of, 173

on Platonic world, 177–79

twistor theory of, 173

Penrose tribar, 173–74

Penzias, Arno, 27

periodic table, 70, 77

“Personal Identity” (Parfit), 222

phenomenological movement, 262

philosopher’s fallacy, 47–48, 266

Philosophical Explanations
(Nozick), 28

philosophy:

definition of, 279

nature of, 24

truth in, 24

physics, 172

Picked-up Pieces
(Updike), 244

Pirahã Indians, 19

Pius XII, Pope, 25

Pivot, Bernard, 277–79

Planck’s constant, 76

Plantinga, Alvin, 104, 115–18, 157

Plato, 8–9, 19, 44, 102, 129, 135, 170, 171–72, 174, 197, 209, 223

axiarchism of, 198–99, 203, 208

transcendent Forms of, 161, 175, 177–78, 183–85, 199

Platonism, 174, 182, 184–85, 186

existence and, 182

God, 173

mathematics and, 171–72

Penrose on, 177–79

plenitude, principle of, 135

pocket universes, 158–59

Polkinghorne, John, 197

polychemistry, 70

Pope, Alexander, 171

Popper, Karl, 158

Posterior Analytics
(Aristotle), 131

principle of fecundity,
see
fecundity, principle of

Principle of Foundation, 237–38, 239–42

Principle of Sufficient Reason, 7, 20, 78, 84, 87, 104, 110, 237–38, 240–42

“Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason” (Leibniz), 20

Principles of Psychology
(James), 193

Proust, Marcel, 29, 35, 67, 222

Putnam, Hilary, 168–69

Pyke, Steve, 228

Pythagoras, 170–71, 177

quantum cosmology, 140, 145

quantum theory, 144, 184, 278

entanglement and, 195–96, 198

existence and, 128–29, 157–58

many-worlds interpretation of, 121

at moment of the Big Bang, 140

multiverse and, 167, 169

Pauli exclusion principle and, 187–88

question of existence and, 128–29, 157–58

subatomic particles in, 187

twistor theory and, 173

universal computer concept and, 120–22

quantum uncertainty, 145

quantum vacuum, 142

Quine, Willard Van Orman, 58–59, 183–84, 230

Rabbit Run
(Updike), 247

reality, 138, 186–87, 240, 252, 253

alienation and, 270

Aristotle’s doctrine of, 186

as Becoming, 218–19

Buddhist view of, 278–79

comprehensibility and, 120

consciousness and, 190–94

genetic, 241–42

as information, 189–90

mathematics and, 189

as mediocrity, 253–54

Parmenides and, 44–45

physicists’ view of, 188–89

Platonic, 8–9

and principle of fecundity, 135

science’s description of, 188

Selector and, 226, 228, 232–36

self-creation and, 261

simulated, 129, 191–92

subjective aspect of, 190–92

universal computer and, 121–22

Updike on, 252

reason, 7–9

Reasons and Persons
(Parfit), 222

Rees, Martin, Baron Rees of Ludlow, 197

relativity, general theory of, 25, 27, 48, 50, 66, 74, 139, 144–45, 155, 162, 173, 183, 184, 250

Remembrance of Things Past
(Proust), 29

Renzo (author’s dog), 151–53

Republic
(Plato), 171, 175, 185, 199

Rescher, Nicholas, 9

retrocausation, 73–74

Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 41

Roger’s Version
(Updike), 39, 244–49

Rolling Stones, 88, 274

Rubirosa, Porfirio, 88

Rundle, Bede, 49, 54

Russell, Bertrand, 24, 58, 111, 119, 131, 159, 184–85, 188, 193, 200, 219

on evil, 213–14

on existence, 254

on God, 254

on mathematics, 183

S (patient), 47

Sandage, Allan, 138

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 3, 89, 209, 216–17, 219, 261, 274, 279

God as viewed by, 90–91

on existence, 254

nothingness as viewed by, 31–32, 43, 149–50, 231

Saussure, Ferdinand de, 188

Scheler, Max, 35

Schelling, Friedrich, 22, 261

Schopenhauer, Arthur, 18, 33, 65, 66, 111, 213, 219, 226, 266, 269

on existence, 21–22, 30–31

on self, 258

Schrödinger’s cat, 167

science, 7, 9, 139, 147, 183, 184, 193

empirical truth and, 24–25

principle of simplicity in, 75–78, 96, 100, 105–6

reality as described by, 188

Sandage on, 138

singularity and, 93

Updike on, 247

Why?
question and, 5–6

Science of Logic
(Hegel), 216–18, 219

Science without Numbers
(Field), 184

Scruton, Roger, 270

Searle, John, 191–92, 196

Selector, 214, 237–39

reality and, 226, 228, 232–36

self, 255–65

Cartesian pronoun “I” and, 256–57, 260–61, 262, 264–65

Fichte’s view of, 261–62

genetic identity and, 255–56

Hume’s view of, 256–57, 258, 260

Husserl’s view of, 262

as illusion, 260

Metaphysical, 262

Nozick’s view of, 261

objective, 262–64

physical criteria of, 259–60

psychological criteria of, 258–60

Schopenhauer on, 258

as self-creating, 260–61

as subject of consciousness, 257–58

self-subsumption, 133–34, 136

sets, theory of, 30, 238, 240

nothingness and, 39–40, 45

Shadows of the Mind
(Penrose), 174–75, 180, 196

Shannon, Claude, 61

Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being
(Spinoza), 205

simplicity, principle of, 119, 238, 241

nothingness and, 77

in science, 75–78, 96, 100, 105–6

Swinburne on, 96–97