Why Everything Exists

The question what exists? admits exactly three answers: nothing exists, something specificexists, or everything exists. The first is refuted by the fact that something is present. Thesecond is shown to be untenable: a specific, limited reality requires something that selects itover its alternatives, yet any external selector is itself part of what exists, and at the causelessfoundation of existence there is nothing that could favour one specific outcome over another.Causelessness cannot select, and where nothing selects, nothing is excluded. The onlyremaining answer is that everything exists. The paper clarifies what “everything” includes,explains why self-contradictory descriptions do not threaten the view, answers the objectionfrom observed order, and contrasts the argument with the plenitude principles of Nozick,Lewis and Tegmark.