Why Something Rather Than Nothing?

[bennyboy]

. . . then cogito ergo ! ThereExists[Empty]

The very phrase "there is nothing" is self-contradictory: how come existence ("there is") is postulated of "no thing"?

But we say that and know what we mean.

We say that in the context of a framework: specifically, time and space. So when I say there's nothing in my hand, I mean that there is a lack of anything in the current time in that location. But the framework is mutually co-defined by the things located in it. For example, if there were no objects arranged in space, what would a kilometer mean? Nothing. If there were no light, then what would the speed of light be? Nothing. If there was no motion, then what would time mean?

So no, in the context of your framework-which-is-not-a-framework-for-anything, I do not in fact know what you mean-- either for things to be said to exist, or not to. It is a non-world, not an empty one.