Symbolic Ai and Gödel's Ontological Argument

Abstract

Over the past decade, variants of Gödel's ontological arguments have been critically examined using modern symbolic AI technology. Computers have unearthed new insights about them and even contributed to the exploration of new, simplified variants of the argument, which now need to be further investigated by theologians and philosophers. In this article, I provide a brief, informal overview of these contributions and engage in a discussion of the possible future role of AI technology for the rigorous assessment of arguments in theology and philosophy.

El impacto plural de la Inteligencia Artificial en la teología

“…Puede parecer demasiado audaz y desde luego lejos de la teología estándar, aunque se trata de procesos interesantes. Diversos colegas intentan desde hace años formalizar dichas pruebas y pasar esas pruebas en sistemas superinteligentes (Benzmüller, 2022;Vestrucci, 2022). Los resultados, al menos en el caso del argumento ontológico, son aleccionadores.…”

Artificial Intelligence and in God's Existence: Connecting Philosophy of Religion and Computation

“…This is the approach provided by the program in computational metaphysics, inaugurated by Fitelson and Zalta (2007) as application of the research on axiomatic theory of abstract objects. Recent contributions to this research program include works by Christoph Benzmüller and his teams in Berlin, Luxembourg, and Bamberg (Benzmüller and Woltzenlogel Paleo 2016; Kirschner, Benzmüller, and Zalta 2019; Benzmüller 2020). This third direction of research produces effective cross‐contributions between the two disciplines: on one hand, AI programs are applied to higher abstract languages formalizing complex metaphysical/theological informal concepts and arguments; on the other hand, the feedback from the theorem prover often provides unexpected and useful insights on the metaphysical and theological concepts and arguments.…”