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7 - Is Nothing Really “Simpler and Easier” Than Something? Part 3 – What Does My Proposal Accomplish?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2026

Andrew Brenner
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Baptist University
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Summary

Suppose the line of thought defended in the previous two chapters is correct, and it is not after all true that “nothing is simpler and easier than something.” What’s the upshot of all this? In this chapter I will discuss three possibilities. First, perhaps it makes it less surprising that there is something rather than nothing. Second, perhaps it makes there being something rather than nothing less in need of explanation. Third, perhaps it explains why there is something rather than nothing. The idea is that there is something rather than nothing because it would have been less simple if there had been nothing. This last possibility is perhaps the most interesting one, since it would give us one more prima facie plausible explanation for why there is something rather than nothing. New explanations of this sort for why there is something rather than nothing are hard to come by. While I will ultimately remain agnostic about whether this explanation is correct, I will argue that the explanation is fairly plausible.

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