Goedels Ontological Argument. History, Modifications and Controversies

This book, devoted to Gödel’s famous ontological argument for the existence of God, contains six contributions which present Gödel’s approach in very different contexts, using different methods and driven by different motives. These include a guided tour through the jungle of published literature following Gödel’s manuscript 1970; some critical analysis of epistemological value of the argument as an inspiration for developing logically grounded theological theories; an application of a net of traditional philosophical concepts to the ontological argument; an investigation showing that it is possible to obtain a “slingshot” effect in Gödel’s theory of positiveness in the presence of the theorem of the necessary existence of God; an analysis relating the ontological argument to Gödel’s view that causality is the fundamental concept in philosophy, as well as an analysis of objections to Gödel’s argument and references to documentation from a blog run by Die Zeit. The book provides the reader an opportunity to obtain wieder philosophical insight into Gödel’s ontological argument, both in historical terms and concerning possible new interpretations.