Benedikt Paul Göcke

Professor Benedikt Paul Göcke
Born	Steinfurt
Nationality	German
Education	University of Münster
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy Continental philosophy
Main interests	Metaphysics, philosophy of science, transhumanism, history of philosophy, philosophy of religion

Benedikt Paul Göcke (born May 1, 1981 in Steinfurt) is a German philosopher and theologian. He is University Professor for the Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Ruhr University Bochum and an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. His research includes theoretical, practical and historical philosophy and can be divided into three main areas: philosophy of science and metaphysics, transhumanism and ethics of digitization, and German Idealism, in particular the philosophy of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832).

Biography[]

After studying philosophy, Catholic theology and religious studies at the University of Münster, Göcke received his doctorate in 2011 under Klaus Müller with a thesis on the panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause at the Catholic theological faculty. Göcke obtained a second doctorate in, this time in philosophy, in 2013 at the Munich School of Philosophy. The work was supervised by Godehard Brüntrup and was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014 under the title "A Theory of the Absolute".^[1] From 2008 to 2012 Göcke was also a research fellow in Religion and Politics under Klaus Müller and from 2010 to 2013 a Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Blackfriars, Oxford. From 2012 to 2015 Göck was a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Since 2016 he has been the group leader of an Emmy Noether project on theology as a science.^[2] Following a junior professorship from 2017 to 2019, Göcke has been Professor for the Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science since 2019. He has also been an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford since 2017.

Research[]

In the field of philosophy of science and metaphysics, Göcke's research focuses in on questions about the epistemological positioning of theology.^[3] Goecke's work deals with basic research on the theory of science, which tries to specify the concept of scientific in order to develop a criterion to differentiate between sciences and pseudo-sciences. In this context, Göcke has given special attention to denominational and scientific theology, and to naturalistic and atheistic objections to the viewing theology as a science.

In the field of transhumanism and the ethics of digitization, Göcke's research concentrates on the one hand on analyzing the philosophical agenda of transhumanism and the arguments that speak for or against a cybernetic change in the biological nature of humans.^[4] Göcke's research also investigates the religiously coded assumptions of the transhumanist agenda and its promise of salvation and examines the extent to which elements of transhumanist thought can be supported from a Christian perspective, for example in the context of process theology .

In the history of philosophy Göcke is a leading specialist on the thought of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832), which he places in the context of “classical German philosophy”. Göcke has aimed to show that Krause's thinking has been wrongly forgotten. According to Göcke, Krause developed the first consistently panentheistic system of philosophy which unites all essential areas of philosophical thought. Göcke contends that Krause's work can be directly linked to numerous current discussions in ethics, religious philosophy, anthropology and political philosophy.

Books Authored[]

Göck, Bendedikt Paul, The Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781-1832): From Transcendental Philosophy to Metaphysics. Oxford, Berlin: Peter Lang. 2018. ISBN 9783631746905

Göck, Bendedikt Paul, A Theory of the Absolute. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan. 2014. ISBN 9781137412812

Göck, Bendedikt Paul, Everything in God? On the topicality of the panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause. Friedrich blows. 2012. ISBN 9783791724300

Books Edited[]

Göck, Bendedikt Paul (ed.): Die Wissenschaftlichkeit der Theologie. Band 1: Historische und systematische Perspektiven. (Studien zur Theologie, Ethik und Philosophie). Münster: Aschendorff. 2018. ISBN 9783402119136

Göck, Bendedikt Paul & Lukas Ohler (eds.): Wissenschaftlichkeit der Theologie. Band 2: Katholische Disziplinen und ihre Wissenschaftstheorien. (Studien zur Theologie, Ethik und Philosophie). Münster: Aschendorff. 2019. ISBN 9783402119181

Göck, Bendedikt Paul & Christian Pelz (eds.): Wissenschaftlichkeit der Theologie. Band 3: Theologie und Metaphysik (Studien zur Theologie, Ethik und Philosophie). Münster: Aschendorff. 2020. ISBN 9783402119204

Göck, Bendedikt Paul, Godehard Brüntrup & Ludwig Jaskolla (eds.): Panentheism and Panpsychism. Philosophy of Religion meets Philosophy of Science. Paderborn: Mentis. 2020 ISBN 9783957431714

Göck, Bendedikt Paul & Christian Tapp (eds.): The Infinity of God. Philosophical and Theological Perspective. Indiana: The University of Notre Dame Press. 2018. ISBN 9780268104139

Göck, Bendedikt Paul & Ruben Schneider (eds.): Gottes Handeln in der Welt: Neue Ansätze aus Theologie und analytischer Philosophie. Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet. 2017. ISBN 9783791729176

Göck, Bendedikt Paul & Frank Meier-Hamidi (eds.): Designobjekt Mensch. Der Transhumanismus auf dem Prüfstand. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. 2018. ISBN 9783451378515

Göck, Bendedikt Paul (ed.): After Physicalism. Indiana: The University of Notre Dame Press. 2012. ISBN 9780268030001

Göck, Bendedikt Paul, Ricardo Silvestre, Jean-Yves Beziau & Purushottama Bilimoria (eds.): Beyond Faith and Rationality: Essays on Logic, Religion, and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer. 2020. ISBN 9783030435356

Göck, Bendedikt Paul & Margit Wasmaier-Sailer (eds.): Idealismus und natürliche Theologie. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber. 2011. ISBN 9783495484586

Awards[]

• Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for outstanding young scientists (2018)

References[]