I. Absence and Presence

Small or large existent objects are not enough to make a universe. They must be present.

One may claim that objects exist in a dead or absent universe. The fact that objects once were but are no more would produce an absence of objects. Objects would exist, but they would be absent. But the universe is not merely existent; it is present. Being (and comprehension) is not enough to account for the fact that things are there.

Objects can be by always being absent, which means that a universe where objects are could very well turn out to be a dead universe where objects would be, but would be dead or absent.

The universe as we know it is not a dead or absent universe, because objects are, but are not limited to being – they are present.

In an undead, eternal world, objects could just as easily not be here and now, but eternally. In a certain Einsteinian interpretation of time, causal connections alone would exist objectively, and past, future, and present would always be signs of the subjective insufficiency of our specific relation to these causal connections. In this eternal world, objects would not have to be present, and events would be reducible to objects. They would not happen, but they would be.

But the fact that things are present for me, or for us, is enough to assume that presence is in the universe. Since I am a part of the universe, the fact that presence is for me sufficiently demonstrates that presence is for the universe.

What is presence?