Why Does the World Exist?
An Existential Detective Story
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Narrated by:
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Steven Menasche
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By:
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Jim Holt
About this listen
"I can imagine few more enjoyable ways of thinking than to read this book."
—Sarah Bakewell, New York Times Book Review, front-page review
Tackling the "darkest question in all of philosophy" with "raffish erudition" (Dwight Garner, The New York Times), author Jim Holt explores the greatest metaphysical mystery of all: why is there something rather than nothing? This runaway best seller, which has captured the imagination of critics and the public alike, traces our latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. Holt adopts the role of cosmological detective, traveling the globe to interview a host of celebrated scientists, philosophers, and writers, "testing the contentions of one against the theories of the other" (Jeremy Bernstein, Wall Street Journal). As he interrogates his list of ontological culprits, the brilliant yet slyly humorous Holt contends that we might have been too narrow in limiting our suspects to God versus the Big Bang. This "deft and consuming" (David Ulin, Los Angeles Times) narrative humanizes the profound questions of meaning and existence it confronts.
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When Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Thuan met at an academic conference in the summer of 1997, they began discussing the many remarkable connections between the teachings of Buddhism and the findings of recent science. That conversation grew into an astonishing correspondence exploring a series of fascinating questions. Did the universe have a beginning? Might our perception of time in fact be an illusion, a phenomenon created in our brains that has no ultimate reality? What is consciousness and how did it evolve?
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The
- By willmit on 05-02-21
By: Matthieu Ricard, and others
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The Dream of Reason, New Edition
- A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
- By: Anthony Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Anthony Gottlieb
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Already a classic, this landmark study of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages. Author Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions much of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity. From the pre-Socratic philosophers through the celebrated days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, up to Renaissance visionaries like Erasmus and Bacon, philosophy emerges here as a phenomenon unconfined by any one discipline.
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Bias spoils the work.
- By MC on 08-21-20
By: Anthony Gottlieb
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What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
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Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
- By James S. on 03-31-18
By: Adam Becker
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Biocentrism
- How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to the True Nature of the Universe
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The whole of Western natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change, forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory. At the same time, these findings have increased our doubt and uncertainty about traditional physical explanations of the universe's genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.
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The Copenhagen Interpretation Resurrected
- By S. Kozlowski on 12-14-09
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
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Here's the thing
- By Mikal on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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Is God a Mathematician?
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
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Origins of Mathematics
- By Rick B on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
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The Experience of God
- Being, Consciousness, Bliss
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion "God" frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.
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The clearest thinking I have heard in ages.
- By Carlos Miranda on 06-17-15
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The Varieties of Scientific Experience
- A Personal View of the Search for God
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan - editor
- Narrated by: Adrienne C. Moore, Ann Druyan
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.
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Sagan's lectures about the possibility of God
- By David T. on 11-13-17
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Time Travel
- A History
- By: James Gleick
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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James Gleick's story begins at the turn of the 20th century, with the young H. G. Wells writing and rewriting the fantastic tale that became his first book, an international sensation: The Time Machine. A host of forces were converging to transmute the human understanding of time, some philosophical and some technological - the electric telegraph, the steam railroad, the discovery of buried civilizations, and the perfection of clocks.
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Fiction gives us Truth by connecting the dots
- By Gary on 04-21-17
By: James Gleick
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The Flip
- Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
- By: Jeffrey J. Kripal
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,” “a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars.
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Good. But Kripal over sold it.
- By Pasternak on 02-14-24
What listeners say about Why Does the World Exist?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- S. Yates
- 10-03-16
Torn between 2 and 4 stars
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Yes, if for no other reason than it is thought-provoking and offers a variety of points of view on an impossible question.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
I am lukewarm on the narration. It was easy to understand, but the tone often seemed too flippant. Also (and this is less about the narration than the book itself), there is too much untranslated French.
Any additional comments?
I sit back and contemplate this book and feel equally sure that I could have given it 2 stars or 4 stars. It is a book of philosophy and asks an unanswerable question. Holt winds his way around the world, meeting with and disucssing why does the world exist (why is there something rather than nothing) with philosophers and scientists, with theists and atheists. The debates and vignettes and theories and metaphors that follow run the gamut, some positing god as the reason and others positing quantum tunnelling and others simply admitting that they do not know. The discussions are at times fascinating or frustrating, mathematical or mystical, considered or circular. For those with a background in or a prediliction for philosophy will likely find this book closer to the 4 star range; for those that have trouble taking seriously ideas without a quantifiable basis, the book will prove more challenging. I do not feel my time was wasted, but I leave with a lot of food for thought and torn between eye-rolling and deep contemplation.
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- Mindstogether
- 01-18-14
Brilliant, beautifully written and well read.
Would you consider the audio edition of Why Does the World Exist? to be better than the print version?
I read and heard the book. I enjoyed both formats. The warmth and personal traits of the author show through the reader.
What other book might you compare Why Does the World Exist? to and why?
No idea. I believe every book is unique and comparisons are not helpful.
What does Steven Menasche bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Better. His voice translates the mood of the author and his humanity.
If you could give Why Does the World Exist? a new subtitle, what would it be?
A personal search for meaning. Is there any purpose for the existence of the world, and its sentient beings.
Any additional comments?
I would encourage the author to write another interesting book.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Robert
- 10-20-13
Great book marred by poor narration.
Steven Menasche is considered a capable narrator, but this time it doesn't seem to work for him.
He sounds very “robotic” with almost complete lack of timing and “presence”. It sounds like he doesn't understand what he is reading, or perhaps more likely; he doesn't care about the book at all.
The book itself is very good though.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Nassir
- 07-31-17
Maybe read this one
This is a charming book, which is kind of the problem. In my experience, there are two kinds of audiobook: the kind you concentrate on, and the kind you don't. It's not that don't pay attention to the latter, it's just that you don't really need to "hear" every word. You can space out for a few minutes and not lose your place. They're good for the background while you clean your kitchen or play a game or ignore your family.
The problem here is that this book is REALLY not that kind of audiobook, it's the other kind... the kind you need to really screw your brain up and concentrate on. Good for sitting in your garden with a cup of tea or walking aimlessly around the park or sitting around ignoring your family. But the author is one of those "fun scientist" types who reasons that a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, and so he sugars up the gaps with amusing anecdotes about his journey of discovery to interview interesting people about interesting things. The meals he ate, the rooms he was in, the foibles of eccentric brilliant people aaaaand now for a refutation of Saint Anselm's proof of the existence of God. And you're like, what? Saint Anselm? Weren't you just contemplating the weather in Oxford? Weren't you just escaping death at the hands of elderly driver? Weren't you just jealously oogling an attractive student on a professor's sofa? Am I supposed to be paying attention now?
It's a pity, because this is good stuff in here, this is stuff I want. It's just unnecessarily hard to get at. It took me two times to slog my way through this and I don't feel I got half of it. It makes me long for a nice series of lectures from the Teaching Company.
If I had the book I could've just flipped the pages ahead to the good bits. My recommendation is that you do that instead, if at all possible.
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3 people found this helpful
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 03-02-15
WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST?
With a smile and a pair of tennis shoes, Jim Holt tries to sell the idea that there is an answer to the question, “Why Does the World Exist?” Like Willy Loman, in “Death of a Salesman”, Holt has a gift for gab but neither he nor anyone else is able to close the sale.
It is certainly not that Holt is not a good salesman but he tries to sell a thing impossible to define. No known person has enough theoretical or experimental proof to convince one there is an answer to “Why Does the World Exist?” All that remains is faith, either in science, religion, or philosophy. Holt’s “…Existential Detective Story” is a terrific synthesis of physics, religion, and philosophy but the mystery remains, “Why Does the World Exist?”
Like Don Quixote, Holt puts a pan back on his head, grabs his lance, swings his leg over Rocinante, and tilts at Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum” to answer the question of why the world exists. It is simply a matter of what you think. Of course, Holt does not believe this is an answer either. He is a very smart guy, a good writer, and an interesting philosopher.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Iwan Aucamp
- 07-20-22
Not very insightful and childish
Dismissing what people belive as stupid is not really adding value here. I would say that's anything this book says is said better in Levels of Nothing by Robert Lawrence Kuhn. Kuhn also deals with people he disagrees a lot better.
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- Gary
- 07-20-13
Excellent survey of philosophy book
The author uses the question "why does the world exist" and each of his interviews as a narrative device in explaining the fundamental questions of philosophy. There are commonly two ways of explaining philosophy, 1) look at philosophy in its chronological order of development as in the book by Will Durant, "The Story of Philosophy", or as this author does 2) look at how different people consider the question "why there is something instead of nothing".
The author is really good at setting up the background and summarizing the perspective of each of the people interviewed in each of the chapters. The author introduces the listener to many different schools of philosophy both relatively modern and ancient (though almost always from the western tradition). The book really filled in my gaps since Durant's book stopped at 1926 and I got a good background on some philosophy after that period.
I had to listen to each chapter more intently than I usually do for science books but the author explains things such that even a non-philosopher can follow the points being made.
One odd note, I never would have finished a written version of this book, because I would have been doing a constant stream of wiki and google searches on the concepts he kept bringing up. Listening doesn't allow me to do that.
Before reading the book, I would never have been able to say something like this: Aristotle thinks of the world made up of both stuff and structure. The structure can be thought of as the math or process that hold the pieces of the stuff together and so on.... The point is even a non-philosopher can listen to this story and follow what's being said.
The book is not for everyone. After all, it is a survey of philosophy book, but the author tells the story so well that the casual reader will be on the look out for other accessible books on philosophy.
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13 people found this helpful
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- None
- 04-25-13
Deep, deep, DEEP listen...
If you could sum up Why Does the World Exist? in three words, what would they be?
I am now depressed.
What other book might you compare Why Does the World Exist? to and why?
Don't know.
What about Steven Menasche’s performance did you like?
Made very difficult topics sound easy. It is a long book and his voice carries it nicely. Nice tone (not too serious)
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
Nothing exists!
Any additional comments?
Be prepared to re-listen to chapters as this stuff is heady.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Hartt
- 07-15-17
A Distraction!
The narrator, Steven Menasche, struggles with the pronunciation of many many words . . . to the point of distraction -- painfully distracting his audience. His fairly competent French pronunciation is not enough to make up for his blunders with all the English words he mangles -- words familiar to the average college graduate. One wonders how Audible auditions its performers -- or even if it does. When the "performer" becomes a distraction the author is betrayed.
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3 people found this helpful
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- E
- 01-03-15
A delight!
Jim Holt brings the reader/listener on a deep yet deeply fun exploration of a nearly unanswerable question. The quest to answer it stays engaging thanks to Holt's playful style of inquiry and his lively cast of brilliant minds - renowned philosophers, theologians, authors, etc. In addition to cogently exploring the toughest question there is, Holt also engages with some of the more difficult of the great philosophers in an approachable yet rigorous way - in his hands, Spinoza, Hegel and Kant aren't so intimidating. Highly recommend.
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1 person found this helpful