Benedikt Paul Göcke (born May 1, 1981) 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 The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

and an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

. 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 Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (; 6 May 1781 – 27 September 1832) was a German philosopher whose doctrines became known as Krausism. Krausism, when considered in its totality as a complete, stand-alone philosophical system, had only a small ...

(1781–1832).

Biography

After studying philosophy, Catholic theology and religious studies at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

, 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 Munich School of Philosophy (German: ''Hochschule für Philosophie München'') is a small Jesuit higher education college in Munich, Germany founded in 1925. History Founded as a seminary at Pullach in 1925 by Augustin Bea, first named the B ...

. The work was supervised by Godehard Brüntrup and was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014 under the title "A Theory of the Absolute". 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 Blackfriars Priory (formally the Priory of the Holy Spirit) is a Dominican religious community in Oxford, England. It houses two educational institutions: Blackfriars Studium, the centre of theological studies of the English Province of the D ...

. From 2012 to 2015 Göcke was a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the

Ruhr-Universität Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction bega ...

. Since 2016 he has been the group leader of an

Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy Noether Emmy is the ''Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noeth ...

project on theology as a science. 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

since 2017. Göcke is the editor of ''After Physicalism'' published in 2012.

Research

In the field of philosophy of science and metaphysics, Göcke's research focuses in on questions about the epistemological positioning of theology. 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. 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 Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Göcke is a leading specialist on the thought of

(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.

Awards

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis (Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize), in honor and memory of the German physicist Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, is funded by the ''Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung'' (BMBF, German Ministry of Education and Research), and ...

of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

for outstanding young scientists (2018)

Books authored

*The Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781-1832): From Transcendental Philosophy to Metaphysics. Oxford, Berlin: Peter Lang. 2018. *A Theory of the Absolute. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan. 2014. *Everything in God? On the Topicality of the Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause – Alles in Gott?: zur Aktualität des Panentheismus Karl Christian Friedrich Krauses. 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gocke, Benjamin 21st-century German philosophers 21st-century German theologians 1981 births Living people People from Steinfurt University of Münster alumni Academic staff of Ruhr University Bochum