Why the World Does Not Exist (eBook)

Markus Gabriel was born in 1980 and studied in Heidelberg, Lisbon and New York. Since 2009 he has held the chair for Epistemology at the University of Bonn and with that is Germany?s youngest philosophy professor. He is also the director of the International Center for Philosophy in Bonn.

Thinking Philosophy Anew 1

Appearance and Being 2

New Realism 5

The Plurality of Worlds 8

Less than Nothing 11

I What is this Actually: the World? 16

You and the Universe 21

Materialism 28

"The World is Everything that is the Case" 32

Constructivism 38

Philosophers and Physicists 44

II What is Existence? 50

The Super-Object 53

Monism, Dualism, Pluralism 56

Absolute and Relative Differences 61

Fields of Sense 65

III Why the World Does Not Exist 73

The Super-Thought 78

Nihilism and Non-Existence 81

The External and the Internal World 91

IV The Worldview of Natural Science 99

Naturalism 106

Monism 111

The Book of the World 115

Subjective Truths 126

Holzwege 131

Science and Art 137

V The Meaning of Religion 146

Fetishism 154

The Infinite 162

Religion and the Search for Meaning 168

The Function of God 178

VI The Meaning of Art 184

Ambivalences 186

On Sense and Reference 190

The Demon of Analogy 194

Reflexivity 197

Diversity 204

VII Closing Credits: Television 209

A Show about Nothing 212

The Senses . . . 215

. . . and the Meaning of Life 220

Notes 222

Glossary 231

Index of Names 237

"A majestic thought experiment."
--Slavoj Zizek

"It is a rare gift to be able to philosophize from the first principles in a way that is neither patronizingly derivative nor technically arcane and in a manner that is accessible to the general reader. But Gabriel possesses that gift in bucketloads."
--Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research

"Imagine a philosopher. This philosopher has the verve and pop-culture curiosity of Slavoj Zizek; Graham Priest's comfort with unresolved ambiguity; the transparent prose of John Gray; and Martin Heidegger's nose for the faint scent of being. Your imagined thinker is Markus Gabriel, and his book is Why the World Does Not Exist."
--Sydney Morning Herald

"This delightful book, translated by Gregory Moss, upholds Wittgenstein's remark that 'whatever can be said at all can be said clearly'."
--The Guardian

"Gabriel has written a gripping thriller, which is of course what all good philosophy should be."
--Die Literarische Welt

"Markus Gabriel shows with great verve how to tackle fundamental philosophical questions, without being overly academic or dumbing down his subject matter."
--Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"With great wit and intellectual provocation, Markus Gabriel explores the perennial questions of humanity."
--Der Spiegel

"Why the World Does Not Exist, is confirmation... that modern works of German philosophy can be both profound and successful."
--Foreign Policy