Why does the world exist? : an existential detective story / Jim Holt.

Author/creator Holt, Jim, 1954-
Format Book
Edition1st ed.
Publication InfoNew York : Liveright Pub. Corp., ©2012.
Description309 pages ; 25 cm
Subjects
Cosmology.

Contents A quick proof that there must be something rather than nothing, for modern people who lead busy lives -- Confronting the mystery -- Interlude : Could our world have been created by a hacker? -- Philosophical tour d'horizon -- Interlude : The arithmetic of nothingness -- A brief history of nothing -- The Great Rejectionist -- Finite or infinite? -- Interlude : Night thoughts at the Café de Flore -- The inductive theist of North Oxford -- Interlude : The supreme brute fact -- The Magus of the Multiverse -- Interlude : The end of explanation -- The ultimate free lunch? -- Interlude : Nausea -- Waiting for the final theory -- Interlude : A word on many worlds -- Platonic reflections -- Interlude : It from bit -- "The ethical requiredness of there being something" -- Interlude : An Hegelian in Paris -- The last word from All Souls -- Epistolary interlude : The proof -- The world as a bit of light verse -- The self : do I really exist? -- Return to nothingness -- Over the Seine.
Review In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddle of existence from the ancient world to modern times.--Amazon.com.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (p. 283-294) and index.
LCCN 2012015177
ISBN9780871404091 (hbk.)
ISBN0871404095

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks BD511 .H65 2012 ✔ Available Place Hold
Joyner General Stacks BD511 .H65 2012 ✔ Available Place Hold