Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

by Simon Blackburn

We can put the problem in the terms of Chapter 2. If God creates the physical universe, how much does he have to do? Can he get by creating only forces? In that case the universe seems to resolve itself into a giant set of ifs. Or does he also have to create objects, both for the forces to act upon, and perhaps to explain how the forces arise? If we plump for the latter, then what conception of those objects can we have? The first conception seems to leave the universe as some kind of huge potential, like a gigantic shimmer. Perhaps Descartes, the mathematician, was happy with this (it is a fascinating question whether he anticipated Faraday’s kind of vision). But common-sense thinking seems to demand something (something solid) to fill the bits of space that have matter in them.