Topics Existence

Question Suppose someone asked me the timeless question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?", is it reasonable for me to answer,"because if there is nothing, the question would still arise as to, why is there nothing rather than something?" Does the second question make sense in itself, and as a response to the first?

Accepted:
September 5, 2013

Comments

Hmm. I can't tell whether your answer engages the timeless question. But I think the timeless question is deeply problematic anyway, as I explain in my contribution to Tyron Goldschmidt's new edited collection of essays on the topic.

You seem to be saying that if there were nothing, then at least the following question would exist: "Why is there nothing rather than something?" (or, perhaps more properly, the question expressed in the actual world by the string of English I just quoted). In that case, it's impossible for there to be nothing. I suppose it's open to the timeless questioner to reply that questions don't exist independently of languages and hence independently of language-users, in which case the question wouldn't exist if there were nothing (else).