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  • Published: 4 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9780141919522
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Questions from Great Philosophers



'Strikingly good and personal ... formidably erudite' Financial Times

Can nature make us happy? How can we know anything? What is justice? Why is there evil in the world? What is the source of truth? Is it possible for God not to exist? Can we really believe what we see?

There are questions that have intrigued the world’s great thinkers over the ages, which still touch a cord in all of us today. They are questions that can teach us about the way we live, work, relate to each other and see the world. Here, one of the world’s greatest living philosophers, Leszek Kolakowski, explores the essence of these ideas, introducing figures from Socrates to Thomas Aquinas, Descartes to Nietzsche and concentrating on one single important philosophical question from each of them.

Whether reflecting on good and evil, truth and beauty, faith and the soul, or free will and consciousness, Kolakowski shows that these timeless ideas remain at the very core of our existence.

  • Published: 4 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9780141919522
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

About the author

Leszek Kolakowski

Leszek Kolakowski was the first recipient of the million-dollar John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and he is the recipient of the 2007 Jerusalem Prize. He lives in Oxford, England.

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Praise for Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Elegant … a conjuration of the history of philosophy as one great continuing moment of reflection

Guardian

There can be few more eminent figures in the world of ideas

The Times

The most esteemed philosopher to have produced a general introduction to his discipline since Bertrand Russell

Independent