Markus Gabriel

When, at a closer glance, so many objects are questionable, when all knowledge seems to be clothed in a kind of deep unknowing, why do we still place any trust at all in reality as it appears to us, in the world in which we seem to live?

3 thoughts on “Markus Gabriel

  1. shinichi Post author

    Why the World Does Not Exist

    by Markus Gabriel

    Where do we come from? Are we merely a cluster of elementary particles in a gigantic world receptacle? And what does it all mean?

    In this highly original new book, the philosopher Markus Gabriel challenges our notion of what exists and what it means to exist. He questions the idea that there is a world that encompasses everything like a container life, the universe, and everything else. This all-inclusive being does not exist and cannot exist. For the world itself is not found in the world. And even when we think about the world, the world about which we think is obviously not identical with the world in which we think. For, as we are thinking about the world, this is only a very small event in the world. Besides this, there are still innumerable other objects and events: rain showers, toothaches and the World Cup. Drawing on the recent history of philosophy, Gabriel asserts that the world cannot exist at all, because it is not found in the world. Yet with the exception of the world, everything else exists; even unicorns on the far side of the moon wearing police uniforms.

    Revelling in witty thought experiments, word play, and the courage of provocation, Markus Gabriel demonstrates the necessity of a questioning mind and the role that humour can play in coming to terms with the abyss of human existence.

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  2. shinichi Post author

    Philosophers view the world to a certain extent in the same way as do alien beings or children. Everything is always completely new. They mistrust strongly ingrained judgments, and, yes, they even mistrust the scientific claims of experts.

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  3. shinichi Post author

    One might think that the world is the domain of all those things that simply exist without our assistance and that surround us in this way. Nowadays, for example, we speak meaningfully of “the universe,” by which we mean that most likely infinite expanse in which countless suns and planets run their orbit and in which people, in a quiet arm of the Milky Way, have built up their civilization. In point of fact, the universe too exists. I will not claim there are no galaxies or black holes. But I do claim that the universe is not the whole. Strictly speaking, the universe is somewhat provincial.

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