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From: JEK@cu.nih.gov
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Goedel's ontological proof
Message-ID: <May.19.05.15.37.1993.1044@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 19 May 93 09:15:38 GMT
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

Fred Gilham asks (May 11) whether it is true that Kurt Goedel wrote
a version of the ontological argument for the existence of God.

Yes, he did. He did not publish it, but it will be published by the
Oxford University Press in German and with English translation in
Volume 3, due to appear this fall, of his Collected Works.

Meanwhile, you can find a summary, or perhaps the whole thing, in an
article by Jordan Howard Sobel called "Goedel's ontological proof"
in the book ON BEING AND SAYING, edited by Judith Jarvis Thompson
(sp?), published by the MIT Press in 1987.

Professor C Anthony Anderson of the Philosophy Department of the
University of Minnesota has written an article, "Some Emendations of
Goedel's Ontological Proof," which appeared in the magazine FAITH
AND PHILOSOPHY, v. 7 (1990): 291-303. It discusses some objections
that various critics have raised against Goedel's proof, and offers
a revised version of the proof that is not vulnerable to these
objections.

 Yours,
 James Kiefer
