A Formal-Logical Approach to the Concept of God

Abstract

In this paper I try to answer four basic questions: (1) How the concept of God is to be represented? (2) Are there any logical principles governing it? (3) If so, what kind of logic lies behind them? (4) Can there be a logic of the concept of God? I address them by presenting a formal-logical account to the concept of God. I take it as a methodological desideratum that this should be done within the simplest existing logical formalism. I start with first-order logic (FOL) with identity, and then show that its simplest modal extension (SQML, or the simplest quantified modal logic) is enough for us to formalize a minimally satisfactory theory 1 This paper is part of the project "The Rationality of Theistic Belief and the Plausibility of the Concept of God", sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation under its umbrella project "Supporting Constructive Research on the Existence of God in Portuguese-Speaking Latin America".