Why does the Universe exist?

Well, how else could they come up with all those nifty theories?

I don't think the universe is much of anything, aside from the largest domain of objects, possible or otherwise. Attributing consciousness to anything apart from living systems (autopoiesis) seems, at face value, absurd.

No but some of them did when younger

Through the exercise of superior intelligence

At face value yes

However the general principle that nothing is entirely anything while everything is partly something else insists upon it

I anticipate a follow-up thread: "Does the Universe really exist?"

And after that I expect "Does the Universe really exist for sure?"

Forgive me Lust if I’m repeating but I can’t see how the idea of “nothingness” is contradictory. Though I can’t envision it I can certainly posit it. Surely the idea is more easily acceptable than all the halting attempts to explain why the existence of space and matter

You know, dalehileman, koans like "what is the sound of one hand clapping" are intended, at least in part, to teach a student that a question or concept isn't necessarily valid just because we can posit it.

"Nothingness" in itself is a vacant idea. It is as meaningless as "heavy" without an object the concept "heavy" is attributed to.

And we may rightly reject the principle, since it leads to absurdity. For seven is not partly six.

Cyr our evident disagreement might perhaps be purely semantic, but “nothingness” is certainly not meaningless while the question “why is there anything at all” deserves to be addressed if only as a tenebrous philosophical isse

What principle and how

It's not a philosophical issue, philosophy meaning "love of wisdom". It's just a dumb question that sounds philosophic. The question is in the same category as "why is red red" or "why is the sky above us and not below us".

I guess your question could be interpreted as a quest for purpose; perhaps you are asking for some grand intention behind the phenomenon we call "universe", but that implies some entity who purposefully made it.
I think of the universe as what happens when unrestricted potential unfolds. It happens because it can happen, and since it can happen it is inevitable.

Right on, Cyr.

Quote:
“nothingness” is certainly not meaningless while the question “why is there anything at all” deserves to be addressed if only as a tenebrous philosophical issue

Disagree. For instance one might respond, “The existential intuitive reaction suggests that eventually it will be shown the idea of ‘nothingness' to be paradoxical or contradictory, in other words, such a ‘state' to be impossible; matter, space, etc, to be necessary"

Not exactly profound but not entirely dumb either

Not at all. However the intuitive notion that the Entire Megillah seems hopeless, utterly pointless does suggest the humanoid is an important part of it

Especially if successive versions of the humanoid have had forever to influence it, making evolution as we know it possible

The mechanism behind his necessity however, has yet to be adequately addressed

Existentialists are very thoughtful folk and taken seriously by much of the PhiloComm


That’s really well put and in fact I’ve long pondered whether if anything can happen, it will. If so however, what bothers me about the notion is that in an infinite Universe there might therefore be an infinite number of each possible galaxy

Not my idea by the way but one intuitively absurd

The questions, "why does the universe exist?" and "Why is there something rather than nothing?" are not meaningless, in the sense that they may be subjectively meaningful to us. But they are not scientifically meaningful; there is no way to investigate them. The question, "why does the universe exist as it is rather than in some other form" is a bit more specific and potentially scientific. Otherwise this conversation so far is purely metaphysical.

Metaphysical questions tell us more about ourselves than about the world.

The very principle you yourself stated.

"However the general principle that nothing is entirely anything while everything is partly something else insists upon it."

URL: http://able2know.org/topic/188372-6#post-4971558

I agree completely. In that regard, the questions can sometimes teach us more than the answers we produce.

Not entirely dumb, you are right about that. But examining the question leads me to conclude that it is a dead end as far as greater clarity and deeper understanding goes, and as far as I am concerned, those are the prime goals of philosophy.