John Leslie
The fine-tuning of the universe is not a coincidence we can ignore: it calls for an explanation.
Life
Canadian philosopher born in 1940, professor emeritus at the University of Guelph. He is known for his work on the fine-tuning of the universe and on philosophical cosmology. He argues that this fine-tuning calls for an explanation, and offers a neoplatonist view in which the universe exists because it is good.
Main works
Proposes that the world exists because its existence is good.
Studies fine-tuning and the many-universes hypothesis.
Defends the possibility of survival after death.
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceThe world exists because goodness requires it (axiarchism), a creative ethical principle rather than a personal God.
Leslie, Value and Existence (1979) ; Universes (1989)
He leans to a view where the cosmos is a single mind-like reality (pantheism), not mere matter.
Leslie, Infinite Minds (2001)
Ethical requirements are objective facts, and they are what ultimately explain why anything exists.
Leslie, Value and Existence (1979)
If goodness itself brings the world into being, existence has an objective point.
Leslie, Value and Existence (1979)