The quest for truth of Stephen Hawking

Scientia et Fides 9 (1):47-61 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

With his bestselling publication, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking introduced in 1988 a new genre by connecting modern science with the question of the existence of God. In the posthumous publication Brief Answers to the Big Questions, he continues with his quest for the ultimate truth. The current study presents a philosophical analysis of this search in terms of the classical philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas. Causality is the central concept employed by Hawking. However, its meaning, in the modern scientific and philosophical literature, is limited to temporal causality in contrast to the view of classical philosophy. Only the latter one accepts causality from outside space and time, with other words, a reality transcending the material world. In a quote presented in the discussion, Hawking defines himself as an atheist. After a careful reading of his writings, however, doubts arise about his unbelief.

Similar books and articles

The death of Philosophy: A response to Stephen Hawking.Callum D. Scott - 2012 - South African Journal of Philosophy 31 (2):385-404.
The Mystery of Existence: Why is There Anything at All.John Leslie & Robert Lawrence Kuhn (eds.) - 2013 - Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
A Thomistic metaphysics of creation.Gaven Kerr - 2012 - Religious Studies 48 (3):337-356.
The Hawking Information Loss Paradox: The Anatomy of a Controversy.Gordon Belot, John Earman & Laura Ruetsche - 1999 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (2):189-229.
Let's Do Black Holes and Time Warps Again: The Future of Spacetime. [REVIEW]Chris Smeenk - 2003 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 34 (4):680-683.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-04-14

Downloads
578 (#27,904)

6 months
186 (#12,619)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?