Facebook friend: Why is there something rather than nothing? Good book review for the philosophically inclined in the NYT. I liked the connection (of sorts) between Heidegger and Wittgenstein in the beginning: "Ludwig Wittgenstein described a feeling of awe that led him to use phrases like “How extraordinary that anything should exist,” but he decided it was better not to say such things. Martin Heidegger decided the other way, and made the Question of Being the foundation for his entire philosophy, becoming, as George Steiner described him, “the great master of astonishment, the man whose amazement before the blank fact that we are instead of not being, has put a radiant obstacle in the path of the obvious.” But no mention of the Heart Sutra--'Form is emptiness, emptiness form...' There's that 'Western Blindspot' again!
CB:
Hegel: Being and Nothing are the same. Heidegger seems a step back from that. Engels: the end of philosophy. Nietszche, Russell, Heidegger, Sartre, Wittgenstein, Foucault are all post-philosophy philosophers.
Heidegger: Why is there something rather than nothing? Louie Nye: Why not ?