KURT GÖDEL ON LOGICAL, THEOLOGICAL, AND PHYSICAL ANTINOMIES

Tim Lethen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

This paper presents hitherto unpublished writings of Kurt Godel concerning logical, epistemological, theological, and physical antinomies, which he generally considered as "the most interesting facts in modern logic," and which he used as a basis for his famous metamathematical results. After investigating different perspectives on the notion of the logical structure of the antinomies and presenting two "antinomies of the intensional," a new kind of paradox closely related to Godel's ontological proof for the existence of God is introduced and completed by a compilation of further theological antinomies. Finally, after a presentation of unpublished general philosophical remarks concerning the antinomies, Godel's type-theoretic variant of Leibniz' Monadology, discovered in his notes on the foundations of quantum mechanics, is examined. Most of the material presented here has been transcribed from the Gabelsberger shorthand system for the first time.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBulletin of Symbolic Logic
Volume27
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)267-297
Number of pages31
ISSN1079-8986
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2021
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Fields of Science

  • 611 Philosophy
  • Kurt Godel
  • antinomies
  • monadology
  • theology

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