Jim Holt

Jim Holt is the author of "Why Does the World Exist?" and a philosopher and journalist by training. He is a sometimes science journalist for the New Yorker and the author of several books. However, Holt is also a character in the book, as it is a record of his attempts to make sense of his core question, "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?" Holt as a trained philosopher both spends a great deal of time in the book explaining philosophical concepts and engaging and assessing the arguments of others. So he not only speaks directly to the reader but is a character in the main engagements and conversations in the book. It is he who interviews Grunbaum, Swinburne, Penrose, Updike and the like.

But there is another side to Holt's role in the book as well, since many of the interludes and some of the...