Mathematical Philosophy - the application of logical and mathematical methods in philosophy - is about to experience a tremendous boom in various areas of philosophy. At the new Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, which is funded mostly by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, philosophical research will be carried out mathematically, that is, by means of methods that are very close to those used by the scientists.
The purpose of doing philosophy in this way is not to reduce philosophy to mathematics or to natural science in any sense; rather mathematics is applied in order to derive philosophical conclusions from philosophical assumptions, just as in physics mathematical methods are used to derive physical predictions from physical laws.
Nor is the idea of mathematical philosophy to dismiss any of the ancient questions of philosophy as irrelevant or senseless: although modern mathematical philosophy owes a lot to the heritage of the Vienna and Berlin Circles of Logical Empiricism, unlike the Logical Empiricists most mathematical philosophers today are driven by the same traditional questions about truth, knowledge, rationality, the nature of objects, morality, and the like, which were driving the classical philosophers, and no area of traditional philosophy is taken to be intrinsically misguided or confused anymore. It is just that some of the traditional questions of philosophy can be made much clearer and much more precise in logical-mathematical terms, for some of these questions answers can be given by means of mathematical proofs or models, and on this basis new and more concrete philosophical questions emerge. This may then lead to philosophical progress, and ultimately that is the goal of the Center.
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Mathematical Philosophy - the application of logical and mathematical methods in philosophy - is about to experience a tremendous boom in various areas of philosophy. At the new Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, which is funded mostly by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, philosophical research will be carried out mathematically, that is, by means of methods that are very close to those used by the scientists.
The purpose of doing philosophy in this way is not to reduce philosophy to mathematics or to natural science in any sense; rather mathematics is applied in order to derive philosophical conclusions from philosophical assumptions, just as in physics mathematical methods are used to derive physical predictions from physical laws.
Nor is the idea of mathematical philosophy to dismiss any of the ancient questions of philosophy as irrelevant or senseless: although modern mathematical philosophy owes a lot to the heritage of the Vienna and Berlin Circles of Logical Empiricism, unlike the Logical Empiricists most mathematical philosophers today are driven by the same traditional questions about truth, knowledge, rationality, the nature of objects, morality, and the like, which were driving the classical philosophers, and no area of traditional philosophy is taken to be intrinsically misguided or confused anymore. It is just that some of the traditional questions of philosophy can be made much clearer and much more precise in logical-mathematical terms, for some of these questions answers can be given by means of mathematical proofs or models, and on this basis new and more concrete philosophical questions emerge. This may then lead to philosophical progress, and ultimately that is the goal of the Center.
Winfried Löffler (Innsbruck) nimmt Stellung zum Thema "Existiert Gott?" (8. Dezember 2014) auf der gleichnamigen Veranstaltung und vertritt damit eine gegensätzliche Postion zu Norbert Hoerster (Mainz), ebenfalls Diskutant der Veranstaltung. (Hinweis: Wegen technischer Schwierigkeiten beginnt das Live-Video ab der 2. Minute.) Zusammenfassung: „Existiert Gott?“– Wenn es eine Frage gibt, über die man sich einfach nicht einig wird, dann ist es diese Frage. Aber woran liegt es, dass es in Bezug auf die Existenz Gottes seit Jahrhunderten (oder sogar Jahrtausenden) keine Einigung gibt? Liegt es daran, dass man für eine Antwort überhaupt gar nicht rational argumentieren kann? Oder kann man sehr wohl rational argumentieren, aber wir wissen letztlich nicht, welche Argumente überzeugend sind und welche nicht? Solche Fragen können – wenn überhaupt irgendjemand – nur Philosophen beantworten. Aus diesem Anlass haben wir zwei bekannte Philosophen eingeladen: Norbert Hoerster und Winfried Löffler, die beide davon überzeugt sind, dass es rationale Argumente für und wider die Existenz Gottes gibt. Winfried Löffler beantwortet die Frage „Existiert Gott?“ mit „Ja“. Seine Antwort stützt sich auf ein sogenanntes kosmologisches Argument für die Existenz Gottes. Löfflers Argumentation baut vor allem auf wissenschaftlichen Annahmen auf, die an das bekannte Standardmodell der Kosmologie anschließen. Norbert Hoerster vertritt hingegen eine skeptische Position, weil selbst das beste Pro-Argument für die Existenz Gottes (das sogenannte teleologische Argument) letztlich nicht überzeugend ist. Das Manko dieses Arguments ist laut Hoerster, dass es bekannten Einwänden nichts entgegenzusetzen hat, die bereits von David Hume vorgebracht wurden. Gegen die Existenz Gottes spricht Hoerster zufolge vor allem das noch immer ungelöste Problem des Übels in der Welt.
MCMP – Metaphysics and Philosophy of Language
Mathematical Philosophy - the application of logical and mathematical methods in philosophy - is about to experience a tremendous boom in various areas of philosophy. At the new Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, which is funded mostly by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, philosophical research will be carried out mathematically, that is, by means of methods that are very close to those used by the scientists.
The purpose of doing philosophy in this way is not to reduce philosophy to mathematics or to natural science in any sense; rather mathematics is applied in order to derive philosophical conclusions from philosophical assumptions, just as in physics mathematical methods are used to derive physical predictions from physical laws.
Nor is the idea of mathematical philosophy to dismiss any of the ancient questions of philosophy as irrelevant or senseless: although modern mathematical philosophy owes a lot to the heritage of the Vienna and Berlin Circles of Logical Empiricism, unlike the Logical Empiricists most mathematical philosophers today are driven by the same traditional questions about truth, knowledge, rationality, the nature of objects, morality, and the like, which were driving the classical philosophers, and no area of traditional philosophy is taken to be intrinsically misguided or confused anymore. It is just that some of the traditional questions of philosophy can be made much clearer and much more precise in logical-mathematical terms, for some of these questions answers can be given by means of mathematical proofs or models, and on this basis new and more concrete philosophical questions emerge. This may then lead to philosophical progress, and ultimately that is the goal of the Center.
