Georg Gasser

Universität Augsburg
Medical University of Innsbruck
  •  901
    How Successful is Naturalism? (edited book)
    Ontos Verlag. 2007.
    The aim of the present volume is to draw the balance of naturalism's success so far.
  •  528
    Wie kausal ist menschliches Handeln? Grenzen in der Naturalisierung menschlichen Handelns
    Zeitschrift Für Katholische Theologie 133 (3-4): 361-381. 2011.
    This article argues that the causal theory of action cannot explain conscious human action adequately. Interpreting actions as bodily movements caused by (mental) states internal to the agent does not do justice to the particular role of the agent herself as ‘performing’ or ‘bringing about’ the action in the light of specific reasons. The only thing one can say about actions being distinct from other bodily movements such as automatic physiological processes or reflexes will employ again the con…Read more
  •  353
    Toward Analytic Theology: An Itinerary
    Scientia et Fides 3 (2): 23-56. 2015.
    In this paper I aim at explaining how analytic philosophical theology developed into a thriving field of research. In doing so, I place analytic philosophical theology into a larger intellectually narrative that is deeply influenced by the philosophy of Enlightenment. This larger framework shows that analytic philosophical theology aims at providing answers to concerns raised by a philosophical tradition that shaped fundamentally the making of our modern Western secular world.
  •  332
    Wohin führt die kausale Handlungstheorie?
    In Bruno Niederbacher & Edmund Runggaldier (eds.), Was Sind Menschliche Personen?: Ein Akttheoretischer Zugang, Onto Verlag. pp. 181-208. 2008.
    Wer der Frage nachgeht, was jemand tut, der geht – wenigstens implizit – auch der Frage nach, wer da etwas tut. Handlungen schreiben wir normalerweise Personen zu. Handeln zu können ist eine derjenigen Eigenschaften, die Personen auszeichnet. Die Analyse menschlichen Handelns geht mit der Frage einher, was menschliche Personen sind. Folgender Beitrag befasst sich mit dem Verhältnis von Handlung und Person innerhalb der kausalen Theorie des Handelns. Durch eine eingehende Analyse dieses weitverbr…Read more
  •  290
    The Power of God and Miracles
    with Josef Quitterer
    European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (3): 247--266. 2015.
    In this paper we explicate the notion of a miracle and highlight a suitable ontological framework for it. Our proposal draws on insights from Aquinas’s discussion of miracles and from the modern ontology of powers. We argue that each substance possesses a characteristic set of natural powers and dispositions which are operative or become manifest in the right circumstances. In a miracle divine intervention activates the fundamental disposition inherent in each creature to be responsive to God’s …Read more
  •  254
    Agent-causation and Its Place in Nature
    In Alessandro Giordani & Ciro de Florio (eds.), From Arithmetic to Metaphysics: A Path Through Philosophical Logic, De Gruyter. pp. 159-178. 2018.
  •  192
    Holm Tetens on the Moral-Existential Argument for Theism: Reasonable Hope and Wishful Thinking
    Neue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 59 (4): 495-513. 2017.
    SummaryHolm Tetens develops in his book „Gott denken. Ein Versuch über rationale Theologie“ theoretical and practical arguments against a naturalistic and in favour of a theistic understanding of reality. In my paper I focus on Teten’s claim that we are rationally justified to hope for the truth of classical theism. I distinguish between rationally justified and unjustified forms of hope and argue that we are rationally justified to hope for the redemption of reality as promised by classical the…Read more
  •  181
    Several non-naturalist philosophers look for ways to maintain the objectivity of morals without making any ontological commitments. Recently Derek Parfit proposed an account of non-ontologically existing irreducible moral properties. My first aim in this paper is to outline that such an account is doomed to fail. My second aim in this paper is to argue that irreducible moral properties can be integrated with adaptions into an ontological framework such as E.J. Lowe’s four-category ontology. If i…Read more
  •  158
    Leibliche Existenz und die Vision des Mind-Uploading
    Zeitschrift Für Theologie Und Philosophie 143 (2): 365-387. 2021.
    Zu den weiterreichenden transhumanistischen Zukunftsvisionen gehört Mind-Uploading: Wir werden dank wissenschaftlicher und technologischer Fortschritte in der Lage sein, Bewusstsein auf künstliche Körper oder digitale Strukturen zu transferieren, um sehr viel länger oder gar unendlich lange leben zu können. Im Kern handelt es sich also um die Vision, durch Technik den Tod zu überwinden. In diesem Beitrag gehe ich im Wesentlichen der Frage nach, welche Theorie des Bewusstseins bzw. welches Geist-…Read more
  •  92
    Muss sich die analytische Religionsphilosophie erneuern?
    Zeitschrift Für Katholische Theologie 142 (4): 584-603. 2020.
    Recently, there have been increasing voices that analytic philosophy of religion is in crisis. In this article, this diagnosis is discussed on the basis of two recent publications on the topic. I argue for the thesis that the current analytic philosophy of religion is less in a crisis than in a transformation process. All resources are available to develop into a global philosophy of religion that takes into account the religious diversity that characterizes modern global society and brings diff…Read more
  •  92
    What happens to us when we die? According to Christian faith, we will rise again bodily from the dead. This claim raises a series of philosophical and theological conundrums: Is it rational to hope for life after death in bodily form? Will it truly be “we” who are raised again or will it be post-mortem duplicates of us? How can personal identity be secured? What is God's role in resurrection and everlasting life? In response to these conundrums, this volume presents joint work of leading philoso…Read more
  •  48
    God’s omnipresence in the world: on possible meanings of ‘en’ in panentheism
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 85 (1): 43-62. 2019.
    Panenetheism is the claim that God and the cosmos are intimately inter-related, with the cosmos being in God and God being in the cosmos. What does this exactly mean? The aim of this paper is to address this question by sheding light on four possible models of God-world-inter-relatedness. Being critical of those models, which understand maximal immanence in a literal, spatial sense, the paper argues in favor of a model, which cashes out immanence in terms of divine activity. God is, where God ac…Read more
  •  41
    Editorial
    European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (3): 1-2. 2015.
  •  38
    Introduction: Divine Attributes
    Topoi 36 (4): 561-564. 2017.
    Analytic philosophy of religion has witnessed a significant increase in interest in the ontological presuppositions of the various theological doctrines. This special issue collects new essays on various divine attributes.
  •  35
    This book is the first systematic treatment of the strengths and limitations of personal and a-personal conceptions of the divine. It features contributions from Jewish, Islamic, Chinese, Indian and naturalistic backgrounds in addition to those working within a decidedly Christian framework. This book discusses whether the concept of God in classical theism is coherent at all and whether the traditional understanding of some of the divine attributes need to be modified. The contributors explore …Read more
  •  24
    Das Handbuch dokumentiert die Bedeutung der analytischen Philosophie für den religionsphilosophischen und theologischen Diskurs erstmalig in kompakter Weise für den deutschsprachigen Raum. Ausgehend von der analytischen Methode, den Vorboten und den maßgeblichen Vertretern der analytischen Religionsphilosophie, wird der Blick auf die wichtigsten etablierten Diskurse, wie etwa die Existenz und Eigenschaften Gottes, das Verhältnis Gott – Mensch und Gott – Welt, sowie auf aktuelle Debatten gelenkt.…Read more
  •  20
    An den Grenzen des Denkens
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 67 (2): 300-306. 2019.
    Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 67 Heft: 2 Seiten: 300-306.
  •  16
    Leid: Durch das Dunkel zum Heil?
    Neue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie 56 (2): 202-222. 2014.
    Eleonore Stump’s intensive work on theodicy culminates in her opus magnum Wandering in Darkness. Her explicit thesis with regard to the evidential problem of evil is: From the background of a Christian worldview even terrible sufferings can be conceived as a necessary and indispensable part of a healing process through which God guides human beings from their postlapsarian sinful state towards their ultimate end, communion with God and fellow human beings. Stump pursues this aim by the use of bi…Read more
  •  15
    Introduction: Divine Attributes
    Topoi 36 (4): 561-564. 2017.
  •  14
    Personal Identity: Complex or Simple? (edited book)
    with Matthias Stefan
    Cambridge University Press. 2012.
    We take it for granted that a person persists over time: when we make plans, we assume that we will carry them out; when we punish someone for a crime, we assume that she is the same person as the one who committed it. Metaphysical questions underlying these assumptions point towards an area of deep existential and philosophical interest. In this volume, leading metaphysicians discuss key questions about personal identity, including 'What are we?', 'How do we persist?', and 'Which conditions gua…Read more
  •  7
    An den Grenzen des Denkens (review)
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 67 (2): 300-306. 2019.
  •  4
    Alternative Gotteskonzepte
    In Klaus Viertbauer & Georg Gasser (eds.), Handbuch Analytische Religionsphilosophie. Akteure – Diskurse – Perspektiven, Metzler. pp. 308-320. 2019.
    Alternative Gotteskonzepte gibt es viele. Im Grunde ist jedes Gotteskonzept eine Alternative für andere Gotteskonzepte. Die Frage nach alternativen Gotteskonzepten ist somit eine Frage der Perspektive. In der gegenwärtigen analytischen Religionsphilosophie werden unter dem Begriff ›alternative Gotteskonzepte‹ Gottesvorstellungen zusammengefasst, die sich implizit oder explizit von dem in der Diskussion vorherrschenden christlich inspirierten theistischen Gottesbegriff abheben. Die Ausgangsperspe…Read more
  •  4
    The issue of religious tolerance is increasingly raised in a globalized world with societies becoming more and more religiously diverse and inhomogeneous. Religious tolerance can be defined as the practice of accepting others as acting in accordance with their religious belief system. Philosophers have recently begun to study more thoroughly the relationship between religious pluralism and religious (in)tolerance with a main focus on the epistemic question of whether the recognition of and refle…Read more
  •  2
    Einleitung
    In Klaus Viertbauer & Georg Gasser (eds.), Handbuch Analytische Religionsphilosophie. Akteure – Diskurse – Perspektiven, Metzler. pp. 3-10. 2019.
    Die Frage, was Religionsphilosophie eigentlich ist, ist eine Meta-Frage, da sie nach der spezifischen Eigenart religionsphilosophischer Reflexion fragt. Diese Frage ist schwierig zu beantworten, da Religionen äußerst komplexe Phänomene sind. Zum einen gibt es eine schier unendliche Vielfalt an unterschiedlichen existierenden Religionen und religiösen Praktiken.
  •  1
    Is Hylomorphism a Neglected Option in Philosophy of Mind?
    In Christian Kanzian & Muhammad Legenhausen (eds.), Soul: A Comparative Approach, De Gruyter. pp. 43-62. 2010.