Can we understand this third claim? What would need to be explained is why this sequence of waves exactly matched such a special number. But if he is right, these other philosophers will misunderstand his view and take his confessions to be evidence for their own Subjectivist view. Why anything? What such laws explain, or partly explain, are the deeper facts about reality that causal explanations take for granted. But there might be nothing here that needed to be explained. But life is special, if only because of its complexity. Simplicity may be the higher Selector, determining that there is no Selector between the ways that reality might be. London, WC1A 2HNletters@lrb.co.uk This we can call the All Worlds Hypothesis. If reality were as full as it could be, this Maximalist View would be better than the Brute Fact View, since it would explain realitys being this way. No Selector could settle whether it rules, since it cannot settle anything unless it does rule. Undeserved suffering does not merely happen to be bad. There would still have been various truths, such as the truth that there were no stars or atoms, or that 9 is divisible by 3. 1272 Words 6 Pages Open Document Essay Sample Check Writing Quality Show More In "Why This? Consider the Null Possibility. As Holt says, we tend to think of the start of the universe by analogy with a concert, where we sit fiddling with our programs until the music begins. But our question is much narrower. This possibility obtains because it has this feature. Other views can make such claims. As before, though this might be true, we should not assume that it must be true. On this Maximalist View, it is a fundamental truth that being possible, and part of the fullest way that reality could be, is sufficient for being actual. Derek Parfit, a contemporary philosopher, declares that "No question is more sublime than why there is a Universe: why there is anything rather than nothing." [2] But Gods existence has been claimed to be intrinsically more probable. London Review of Books, Though this matching might be a coincidence, which had been randomly produced, that would be most unlikely. He, you know, the one thing that's overwhelming with him is even if, you know, on that ball, you know, the guy, you know, grabbed him, slowed him down. Of several discussions of these questions, I owe most to John Leslies Value and Existence (1979), and to Robert Nozicks Philosophical Explanations (1981); then to Richard Swinburnes The Existence of God (1979), John Mackies The Miracle of Theism (1982), Peter Ungers article in Mid-West Studies in Philosophy, Volume 9 (1989), and some unpublished work by Stephen Grover. Not only does value rule reality, Leslie suggests, it could not have failed to rule. One apparent fact about reality has recently been much discussed. Read anywhere with the London Review of Books app, available now from the App Store for Apple devices, Google Play for Android devices and Amazon for your Kindle Fire. Of the countless cosmic possibilities, or ways that reality might be, a few have very special features. William Flesch Find out more about the London Review of Books app. And it is the easiest to understand. On the reasoning that we are now considering, the first truth explains the second, since this possibility obtains because it has this special feature. If there is more than one such feature, they are all partial Selectors. So, if either view is true, we should not expect our world to have such features. First, why is there a Universe at all? skimming it, this seems like a "fun" piece or one of the intros. Though this question is hard, the occurrence of many Big Bangs is not more puzzling than the occurrence of only one. According to most theists, God is a being who is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good. Similar remarks apply to the necessities involved in the essential properties of particular things, or natural kinds. Suppose that, with an optical telescope, we saw a distant pattern of stars which spelled out in Hebrew script the first chapter of Genesis. Derek Parfit. It can seem astonishing, for example, how reality could be made to be as it is. There are, then, various cosmic and explanatory possibilities. Even an infinite series of events cannot explain itself. Though plausibility is a matter of degree, there is a natural threshold to which we can appeal. I am trying to get round, of course, to asking the Selectors what was going on when they decided to publish Derek Parfits two-part article on the meaning of the universe (LRB, 22 January)? That use of because, Axiarchists should admit, cannot be easily explained. But, just as the simplest cosmic possibility is that nothing ever exists, the simplest explanatory possibility is that there is no Selector. Since belief in many Big Bangs leaves less that is unexplained, it is the better view. Suppose that, of the cosmic possibilities, those that have these special features are much more likely to obtain. It might have been true that nothing ever existed: no living beings, no stars, no atoms, not even space or time. But this cannot be true, since these entities cannot do anything unless they exist. Causal necessities come lower down. If I win (with odds 1 in 1000) and my life is saved, the fact requires no explanation. It may be objected that, in regarding conditions as special if they allow for life, we unjustifiably assume our own importance. letters@lrb.co.uk With that necessity, our search would end. On the different and simpler view that is relevant here, the other worlds have the same fundamental laws of nature as our world, and they are produced by Big Bangs that are broadly similar, except in having different initial conditions. The answer, I suggest, is No. Thus, from the mere fact that our world exists, we can deduce that the Null Possibility does not obtain. The uncaused existence of such a being has been claimed to be simpler, and less arbitrary, than the uncaused existence of many highly complicated worlds. The things that happen within that reality, namely everything, exists because there were no other possibilities. (After all, similar sorts of error are not unprecedented in the history of physics.) Exactly as in the second scenario, I am saved by a single draw of the longest straw out of a thousand, with no other draws taking place. First, why is there a Universe at all? And if there is no need here, why should there be one in Parfits second scenario? But our world may have the other two features: being wholly law-governed, and having very simple laws. Question: What is a selector according to Derek Parfit? Either brute fact or a selector must explain these worlds. Does our world have such features, ones that count against the unselective views? That would explain his managing, once, to pick the longest straw, without thats being an extreme coincidence, or this lotterys being rigged. It may be objected that, when I talk of an extreme coincidence, I must be assuming that these cosmic possibilities are all equally likely to obtain. If such a possibility obtained, that might be no coincidence. Some people even claim that there may be only one coherent cosmic possibility. It can seem mysterious, for example, how things could exist without their existence having some cause, but there cannot be a causal explanation of why the whole Universe, or God, exists. Everything that happens is literally the only thing that could have happened. The conditions that allow for complexity and life may have been, compared with all the others, much more likely to obtain. There may also be some higher Selector which explains there being this Selector. Reality would then be the way it is because, or partly because, this way had this feature. To focus on this question, we should briefly ignore the worlds evils, and suspend our other doubts about claims (1) and (2). If reality is the way it is because this way has some feature, to know what reality it like we must ask why. Listen to this episode from Making Sense with Sam Harris on Spotify. They assume that, as Wittgenstein wrote, doubt can exist only where there is a question; and a question only where there is an answer.. But in that explanation God, qua Creator, is redundant. Probabilistic Selectors make some cosmic possibility more likely to obtain, but leave it open whether it does obtain. Axiarchy might be expressed as follows. In the London Review of Books the philosopher Derek Parfit asks two questions: "Why is there anything at all rather than nothing?" and "Why is there this?". Even if God exists, the intentional explanation could not compete with the different and bolder explanation offered by the Axiarchic View. This hypothesis is not the same as though it includes the Many Worlds Hypothesis. Some physicists suggest that the observable Universe is only one out of many different worlds, which are all equally parts of reality. Appealing to coincidence wont do. The truth of either might make the other true. Why does the Universe exist? Please change your browser settings to allow Javascript content to run. If such a God exists, however, other features of our world become hard to explain. And it is not clear why it should obviate the need for explanation. Similar remarks apply to the All Worlds Hypothesis. We want its protections, and others want those same protections against us. If some cosmic possibility obtains because it has some special feature, we can call this feature the Selector. On that more cautious view, many other worlds have the same elements as our world, and the same fundamental laws, and differ only in such features as their constants and initial conditions. Might there be, at every level, another higher Selector? No question is more sublime than w hy there is a Universe: why there is anything rather than nothing. Others say: There had to be some initial conditions, and the conditions that make life possible were as likely as any others. My suggestion is only that, at the end of any such explanatory chain, some highest Selector must merely happen to be the one that rules. Why this? Suppose first that, of a thousand people facing death, only one can be rescued. Why does a literary magazine exist at all? This site requires the use of Javascript to provide the best possible experience. Read anywhere with the London Review of Books app, available now from the App Store for Apple devices, Google Play for Android devices and Amazon for your Kindle Fire. Another possibility, which might have obtained, is that nothing ever exists. So, on both the unselective views, we should not expect our world to have these features. And, if these facts had been no coincidence, this possibility would have obtained because or partly because it had one or more of these special features. Let us now ask: could this question have an answer? You cannot change what will happen before it happens, otherwise you wouldn't be changing but instead preventing. Nor could this Selector make itself the highest. If the Brute Fact View is true, it may have been selected in this way. Parfit distinguishes those extremely unlikely events that do not require explanation from those that do. This would causally explain, they say, how the Universe came into existence out of nothing. If there is some highest Selector, that, I suggest, must merely happen to be true. Consider first a similar question. Please change your browser settings to allow Javascript content to run. Our worlds moral character seems not to count against these views, since it seems the mixture of good and bad that, on the unselective views, we should expect. So why is the Universe as it is? It is hard to understand why, out of all these possibilities, God chose to create our world. The world we live in is unfair enough, with the LRB appearing only fortnightly, and that terrible gap after Christmas, the deepest abyss in the year. A nd, even if reality cannot be fully explained, w e may still make progress, since w hat is inexplicable may become less baffling than it now seems. his on what matters books saved me in college quite a bit. Why Anything? But suppose that 58 worlds existed. It may next be objected that these conditions cannot be claimed to be improbable, since such a claim requires a statistical basis, and there is only one Universe. Such things are logically impossible. Consider next a quite different view. But, since Gods own existence could not be Gods work, there could be no intentional explanation of why the whole of reality was as good as it could be. Some say: If they had not been right, we couldnt even ask this question. But that is no answer. When we imagine how things would have been if nothing had ever existed, what we should imagine away are such things as living beings, stars and atoms. 28 Little Russell Street For life to be possible, the initial conditions had to be selected with great accuracy. And how far can this line of thought be pushed? If, instead, there have been many Big Bangs, this fact is easy to explain, since it is like the fact that, among countless planets, there are some whose conditions allow for life. Return now to the question whether God exists. Though each long number is unique, only a very few are, like , mathematically special. This view might be true because it is the simplest of the explanatory possibilities. Of all the global possibilities, the Null Possibility would have needed the least explanation. Similar remarks apply to all suggestions of these kinds. Why Anything?" Derek Parfit provides his demonstration of the fallibility of providing causal answers for the creation of the universe. But evolution cannot explain the appearance of fine-tuning in the Big Bang. It might have been true that nothing ever existed: no living beings, no stars, no atoms, not even space or time. London, WC1A 2HNletters@lrb.co.uk 4.19. It might have been true that nothing ever existed: no living beings, no stars, no atoms, not even space or time. we have reason to reject this view based on pointless evil and suffering in the world. London, WC1A 2HN So even cosmologists should admit that, of these two answers to our question, the one that invokes scientific error is more likely to be true. Here are Parfit's exact words on the distinction: " It will help to distinguish two kinds of possibility. 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