Expert: Austin Cline - 4/29/2008

Question
What's your argument that "outside the universe" is incoherent?

(Hint: standard Begging the Question argument of "existence=nonmetaphysical existence; therefore the metaphysical's nonexistent" is not a promising approach)

Imagine an entity, maybe of this universe, maybe not, who has spent its whole life in a box.

To that entity, the concept "outside the box" might seem as incoherent as "outside the universe" seems to you.

We can imagine the entity turning out to be right--there's nothing outside the box.

But we can imagine it being wrong too, without contradiction, can't we?

Are we not in the same position with regard to whether there's a "why" to this universe?  

Answer
"standard Begging the Question argument of "existence=nonmetaphysical existence; therefore the metaphysical's nonexistent" is not a promising approach"

I didn't use any such argument. I didn't make an argument about the nature of existence, but the nature of the concept of "outside." The concept "outside" is spatial and thus depends on the context of "space." It is incoherent to talk about "north of the universe" because there is no north or south context to the universe. It is incoherent to talk about the "color" of verbs because verbs have no visual aspects that include color.

"Imagine an entity, maybe of this universe, maybe not, who has spent its whole life in a box."

You gave that analogy last time, and it's irrelevant because it doesn't involve the utilization of a inapplicable concept. The entity in the box might not be able to imagine "outside the box," but the concept of "outside" for that entity does not depend on the context of the box.

"We can imagine the entity turning out to be right--there's nothing outside the box."

You still misunderstand or misrepresent the situation. To discover that there is "nothing outside the box" presume that there is an "outside the box" where something or nothing might be found. The point is, there is no "outside the box" at all - the very notion of "outside the box" is incoherent because "outside" is a relationship between things that can only exist in a spatial context. Spatial context only exists as part of the universe. Therefore, without the context of the universe, there is no relationship of "A is outside B."