I should state at the beginning that it is not my aim to put forth a theory of everything — at least not in a scientific or mathematical sense. That would be a little ambitious… The purpose of this project is to work toward a rational and coherent view of the world, a theory or narrative that begins with the ultimate. If I am to have a coherent worldview, it must begin with the question of what lies at the bottom of it (or the top). If determined, this is the basis, necessarily, of all statements of fact. All truth traces its lineage to it. All questions follow their inquiry back to this source. The question of the ultimate is the first one, the main one, the big one. It is the question: What, really, is all of this? Or even: What is?

It is this Question that drew me to philosophy. Introduction classes are great at making the siren call of “truth” to young students. They draw us in with the big questions. Does God exist? What is good? What is the meaning of life? The discussions and debates are thrilling for the semester or so that they last. But those students who sign up for more classes slowly and quietly are led past the big questions, which are left unsettled. With first principles that are soggy at best, these students go on to take vehement stances on smaller questions. As they advance further, the questions get smaller still, until — and this actually happened to me — they are grad students left debating whether a man, who has seen only a cat’s tail and names it Fluffy, has actually succeeded in naming the whole cat. May my professors forgive me for not being a motivated student.

I get that the “meaning of life” question is laughably unanswerable (so much so that Monty Python, in nihilistic humor, entitled one of their biggest projects, a collection of inane sketches, “The Meaning of Life”). Even philosophy classes usually only pose the question jokingly. But, really, what’s the point of answering any question other than the big ones? What’s the point of any other “answer” if it doesn’t follow from the solid ground of primary Truth? I cannot have a firm opinion on human rights if I cannot say what it means to be human. The question of our own existence presses on us constantly, and engaging in any other inquiry is mere distraction without firm belief in what is ultimate in the universe.

Whatever is ultimate — whatever the first principles actually are — is not and cannot be undergirded by a deeper truth. This is necessarily the case. There is no underlying reason for it, because it is the underlying reason for everything. So it makes no sense to ask why the ultimate is the ultimate. For the purposes of logic, it simply is. This leaves us in a quandary: Whatever the ultimate is — whatever law or form or being lies at the foundation of all existence — all other truths follow from it by implication. If all truth follows from it, none of these subordinate truths can lead to it. Our only option is, rather, to attempt to feel our way back to it. This will be the method by which I proceed in this project. Let me show you what I mean:

To approach an answer to the question of what is ultimate, I will pose three general answers to the question and see how they fare. These are the three broad possibilities for the ultimate:

First: That the universe and all of life are, ultimately, material — i.e., time, space, matter, energy, and natural laws that govern them. Nothing more. This is sometimes called naturalism.

Second: That the “ultimate” is a higher, transcendent level of order, being, or purpose that guides the universe and our lives. This vague transcendence can be described as divine but is non-personal. We’ll call this the Star Wars option.

Third: That God Himself, or God Herself is ultimate. This personal God (or gods) is the creator of the universe at a minimum, and may or may not sustain or care about it. I’ll explore those as we get there. I could perhaps call this the Middle Earth option.

This project will proceed by exploring the explanatory virtues of each of these general proposals. The one that best explains the universe and human experience would seem to be the best candidate for the title of “The Ultimate.” Or, at any rate, if we are able to lead ourselves to first principles, this method seems at least as good as any other.