Lesley asked:

A question: for and against, why do things exist?

============

What does "for and against" mean? Some things exist now because others existed earlier. Now if one
means, Why are there things at all?, no answer is possible. To ask "Why?" is to intend some actual
thing as a reason. To ask why allactual things exist leaves nothing left over that might serve as such
a reason.

Tony Flood

What else would existent things do other than exist?

But you may be asking, why do the things that exist, exist, rather than other things that do not exist? I
think that we have to go to science for the answer to that question. For instance, it seems clear that if
human beings as they presently are could not exist if the planet were very much hotter or much
colder than it now is.

Ken Stern