A central question of the book is, "
Why is there something rather than nothing?", which lies in the domain between philosophy and scientific cosmology.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, in 1714, was the first to publish the question. In this book, the author records a quest to answer the question through a series of interviews and discussions. Some of the persons interviewed are
John Updike,
David Deutsch,
Adolf Grünbaum,
John Leslie,
Derek Parfit,
Roger Penrose,
Richard Swinburne,
Steven Weinberg, and
Andrei Linde. Along the way, Jim Holt also introduces the reader to the
philosophy of mathematics,
theology,
physics,
ontology,
epistemology, and other subjects. ==Review==