Does the Universe exist because it ought to? A critique of extreme axiarchism

Abstract

Extreme axiarchism holds that ethical requiredness is itself creatively powerful, so that Leibniz’s question is answered by the fact that the existence of a physical universe, rather than nothing, is a better state of affairs (John Leslie). But just as this universe could be worse than it is, (e.g., lifeless), it could certainly be better than it is. Furthermore, Leibniz’s question is flawed; that there is something is a discoverable state of affairs, that there is nothing is not.