Abstract

A COMMON reaction to "Why ever should any existing individual exist?" has been simply to ask, "Why not?", an answer that has remained impervious to such suggestions as rely upon the principles of sufficient reason, or intelligibility, or causality, or some supposed sense of contingency. I think that the "Why not?" response has been thoroughly justified, as also has been the refusal to modify it in response to the suggestions just mentioned. If the question of why any existing individual should exist is to be treated seriously, it has first to be shown to deserve an answer, i.e., to have some logical warrant. This article, therefore, is an attempt not only to supply that warrant, but to show what the answer to the question should be.