A Platonic Theism: Goodness Is What Ultimately Gives Existence To the World

Why is there something concrete, instead of there being nothing at all? in response to this question, most theists maintain: god is a metaphysically necessary being and has created all other things in the world. but when one asks theists, “what explains god’s metaphysical necessity?”, they respond that the question does not make sense: something’s being necessary means that no alternative is possible. in other world, they say, it lies in the essence of god that he exists, and the fact that his essence is so is not apt for further explanation. however, some evidence shows otherwise: there are theists who concede that god’s necessary existence is the ultimate brute fact, it could have an explanation but it does not. also, some theists attempt to explain god’s necessary existence through facts of value. some others go so far as using the term, god, for the creative force of value. they follow plato’s footsteps in viewing the form of good as what gives existence to the world. this kind of platonic explanation was intended by many great theologians of the past: “the good is that on which all else depends” (plotinus); “goodness as a cause is prior to being”, and “even non-existent things seek a good, namely, to exist” (aquinas). as a current supporter of that view, paul tillich says: god “is not a being” but is instead “the power of being”, “the creative ground of existence.”but one might still ask, in explaining the world’s existence, why goodness itself obtains rather than other metaphysically necessary facts. i show, in reply, that facts of value can explain existence in a way that no further why-question arises. i argue for an axiological explanation that is literally self-explanatory. while reality’s intelligibility is presupposed by every why question, it is widely accepted among philosophers that, all other conditions being equal, a hypothesis with more explanatory power is more likely to be true. by virtue of its ultimate explanatory power, therefore, goodness wins over other explanations for existence.