In his new book, “Why Does the World Exist?,” Jim Holt throws everything he’s got at the question. He reads Wittgenstein and Plato. He meets with leading physicists, theologians and philosophers. He considers the relative strength of answers like God, multiple universes and Just Because. And he does all this without making the lay reader’s head explode. And in an interview, he implores:
Please, please look up Derek Parfit’s essay “Why Anything? Why This?,” published in two parts in the London Review of Books (January 22 and February 5, 1998). If you’re like me, Parfit’s essay will make you weep tears of intellectual joy." Jim Holt
I did look it up. It didn't make me cry, though I did enjoy it a lot. But I don't agree with Wittgenstein:
Doubt can exist only where there is a question; and a question only where there is an answer.
My view:
Questions can exist where we think answers are possible, but of course we can always be mistaken.
No Small Talk: Jim Holt on Why the World Exists - NYTimes.com
But if we aren't mistaken, do we still get rid of doubt by only answering the question that caused the doubt or is there more to it than that?
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