[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40278-en":3,"doc-seo-40278-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40278,4810365810221,"Aurora","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",8,"Research & Report","On the Ultimate Origination of Things","“On the Ultimate Origination of Things” by David Gunn proposes a contemporary solution to the classic philosophical problem of the ultimate origin of reality. Motivated by Leibniz’s essay and its provocation, the paper reframes the debate using advances in general dynamics and the universal theory of physical force or action. It argues that neither an eternal universe nor later cosmological models remove the need for an extramundane origin, while addressing scope questions about whether time is strictly physical.","volume 21, no. 5 january 2021  \nOn the Ultimate Origination of Things  \nDavid Gunn  \nIndependent  \n© 2021 David Gunn This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.  \n\u003C[www.philosophersimprint.org/](www.philosophersimprint.org/021005/)[021005](www.philosophersimprint.org/021005/)[/](www.philosophersimprint.org/021005/)>  \n1. Introduction  \nThe problem of determining the ultimate origin of things is one of the oldest problems in philosophy. Here, we propose a new solution to this old problem based on advances in general dynamics, the universal theory of physical force or action. Although our article was prompted in part by Leibniz’s famous essay on the origin of things, from which it also takes its title, it does not furnish a scholarly critique of that essay. Instead, it employs a provocative argument contained therein to frame and orient a contemporary discussion of the subject, one that in due course arrives at conclusions that differ from Leibniz’s own but are supported by the principles of modern physics.1  \nLeibniz begins his essay by rejecting the idea that the reason for the universe’s existence can be found by looking to the universe itself:  \nI certainly grant that you can imagine that the world is eternal. However, since you assume only a succession of states, and since no reason for the world can be found in any one of them whatsoever (indeed, assuming as many of them as you like won’t in any way help you to find a reason), it is obvious that the reason must be found elsewhere…in something extramundane, different from the chain of states, or from the series of things, the collection of which constitutes the world.2  \n1. It is somewhat ironic that one of these principles, the so-called principle of least or stationary action, actually has conceptual roots in Leibnizian physics and metaphysics. Terekhovich (2018) has accordingly offered a modal interpretation of this principle that draws upon Leibniz’s concept of essences or possibles striving for existence. Our own application of the principle does not rely on a modal interpretation or on Leibniz’s concept, but it does require, in agreement with the dynamical character of Leibnizian physics, that the principle be acknowledged as a genuine dynamical principle, one that specifies the general nature of real physical force or action, and as such makes possible genuine explanations of physical phenomena. This realist viewpoint contrasts with the instrumentalist view of the principle as a mere mathematical tool that aids the construction and analysis of physical theories, but does not afford explanations.  \n2. Leibniz (1989: 149-150) .  \ndavid gunn On the Ultimate Origination of Things  \nAs for the case of a non-eternal world, of a universe that has not always existed, Leibniz does not explicitly consider it in his essay, presumably because he thought it obvious that such a universe stands in need of an extramundane origin. For he evidently excludes the possibility of it having arisen from nothing, since “existing things cannot derive from anything but existing things”.3  \nLeibniz concentrates, therefore, on the case of a universe that has no beginning in time, and in doing so poses a challenge to those who seek to evade the possibility of an extramundane origin by positing an endless temporal (and causal) sequence of immanent things or states that stretches into the infinite past. The rationale here is, of course, that if such things or states only ever originate in earlier things or states of the same sort, then no other kind of origin is required. But Leibniz counters that this approach begs the question in regard to the entire sequence of states: explaining individual states in terms of earlier ones does not explain why the sequence itself exists, why there are such states in the first place, and thus why there is something rather than nothing at all. Therefore, even in the case of an eternal universe, one must, it se","cbCaijycZURiNf7R","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijycZURiNf7R","pdf",410089,4,1,16,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Leibniz’s challenge to an immanent origin\n## Extending the argument to modern cosmology\n## Scope: physical versus immaterial accounts","[{\"question\":\"What is the central problem addressed in the article?\",\"answer\":\"The article tackles the philosophical problem of determining the ultimate origin of things—why there is something rather than nothing at all.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Gunn relate his approach to Leibniz’s essay?\",\"answer\":\"Gunn uses a provocative argument found in Leibniz’s essay to frame a modern discussion, while ultimately reaching conclusions that differ from Leibniz’s own.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article claim an extramundane origin is still needed even for an eternal universe?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that explaining states by earlier states of the same kind does not explain why the entire sequence exists in the first place, so an extramundane origin remains 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