029 - "Why is There Something Rather than Nothing?"- A False Dilemma?

Martin Heidegger called this question the most fundamental of all metaphysics:  Why is there something rather than nothing?  As author Jim Holt states, "It's a question so profound it would only occur to a metaphysician, yet so simple it would occur only to a child."

Yet is the question valid?  Is something/nothing an either/or proposition?  Or as contemporary philosopher Robert Nozick states it, "So why is there something from nothing? There isn't. There's both."

This question can be addressed in four different ways:
     1) It's the will of God (Leibniz)
     2) Existence is a brute fact and does not need a reason (Russell).  
     3) Quantum particles can pop into existence from nowhere (Krause).
     4) It is a false dilemma - both something and nothing co-exist (Hegel) 

This podcast episode explores.  

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