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  7. 2025 Workshop on Computational Ontology and Metaphysics

Events in Winter 2025/26 at the University of Bamberg

A. Winners' Symposium of the 2025 Kurt Gödel Essay Prize (Dec 5)

B. Intl. Workshop on Computational Ontology & Metaphysics (Dec 4)

C. Block Course on Computational Metaphysics (Nov 27 - Dec 5)

 

All events are open to the public; for organisational purposes please sign-up here for Dec. 4-5. 

Further key information: 

A. Winners' Symposium of the 2025 Kurt Gödel Essay Prize

  • Friday, December 5, 2025, 10:00-16:30, University of Bamberg, Room: TBA
  • Organisation: Christoph Benzmüller and the Berlin-based Kurt-Gödel-Freundeskreis.

B. Intl. Workshop on Computational Ontology & Metaphysics

C. Block Lecture Course on Computational Metaphysics

  • Thursday, November 27 to Friday, December 5, 2025; daily meetings from 16:00-18:00 in Room WE5/05.017; on Dec 4 & 5 the course will merge with events A and B.
  • The course will introduce basic concepts that will be picked up and further deepened in events A and B.
  • Organisation: Edward Zalta (Stanford U), Daniel Kirchner and Christoph Benzmüller.
  • Please sign-up in the VC System (participants from U Bamberg) or write an email to sekretariat.aise(at)uni-bamberg.de (external participants).

Planned is a joint dinner event for A, B and C on the evening of Thursday, December 4, 2025

 

Further Descriptions

A. The Winners' Symposium of the 2025 Kurt Gödel Essay Prize(Dec 5, 2025) presents the winners of this year's essay award and offers them a forum for discussing their contributions with other researchers and the general public. The central question of the 2025 essay prize was: “How are Gödel's conceptual and mathematical realism, his argument against the existence of time, and his ontological argument compatible with a coherent ontology?” Contributions were sought that shed light on the topic from a logical, philosophical, and physical perspective and refer to the work of Kurt Gödel. The award winners are:

The awards will be presented by Rene Talbot and Hans Schwarzlow on behalf of the Berlin Kurt-Gödel-Freundeskreis. Among the participants will also be the jury members Brigitte Falkenburg (TU Dortmund) and Oliver Passon (U Wuppertal).

B. The International Workshop on Computational Ontology and Metaphysics (Dec 4, 2025) brings together researchers interested in the use of computer-based methods and tools for researching and evaluating fundamental ontologies and metaphysical theories. On the one hand, this event focuses on disseminating the latest developments in the field of computational ontology and metaphysics. At the same time, a special focus on Gödel's concept of “ontology” is highly welcome in order to fruitfully link the event with the 2025 Kurt-Gödel-Prize Winner Symposium the following day. The latter kind of contributions may, e.g., include novel insights from the Princeton Nachlass of Gödel to contemporary logic, metaphysics, and computer science, and novel studies on his writings and notes on ontology notions. The projected sessions will combine textual work, formal reconstructions, and conceptual discussion, culminating in a roundtable on the prospects for a unified (or deliberately plural) notion of ontology – following Gödel’s footsteps.

A combination of invited and contributed talks is currently being solicited. The duration of the talks is expected to vary between 30min and 60min. The list of confirmed speakers includes:

  • Edward Zalta (Stanford University and 2025 Johann von Spix Visiting Professor at U Bamberg): Ed will report on latest developments of his foundational metaphysical theory, the Principia Logico-Metaphysica (https://mally.stanford.edu/principia.pdf).
  • Peter Fritz (University College London):  Peter will present his higher-order metaphysics (https://academic.oup.com/book/56155); if time permits, he will will also briefly address symmetry problems in modal ontological arguments.(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nous.70009) and higher-order metaphysical resolutions of the continuum problem.
  • Jan von Plato (University of Helsinki): Jan will focus on “Modal concepts in Gödel's metamathematics”.
  • Daniel Kirchner (University of Bamberg): Daniel will report on his encoding of major parts of Zalta's Principia Logico-Metaphysica in Isabelle/HOL.
  • Christoph Benzmüller (University of Bamberg): Christoph will report some recent “Notes on Gödel’s and Scott’s variants of the ontological argument” (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00605-025-02078-x) which is joint work with Dana Scott (Berkeley).
  • Martin Korth (University of Münster): Martin will raise the question “Do humans process (also) qualitative information? Help from computational metaphysics welcome!”.
  • Brigitte Falkenburg (TU Dortmund): Brigitte will focus on “Gödel, Kant, and the Incompleteness of Physical Knowledge”.

Further participants include:

Envisioned is also the organisation of a roundtable debate.

C. Block Lecture Course on Computational Metaphysics

This course will be held by the 2025 Johann-von-Spix Guestprofessor Edward Zalta (Stanford), Daniel Kirchner and Christoph Benzmüller. It is organised as a block course running from November 27 to December 5 in combination also with the events A and B. Topics for follow-up projects will be offered to successful participants. The course is open to any person and student interested in logic, metaphysics and computer science. It is particularly suited for students from computer science and philosophy. By default 3 ECTS are awarded to successfully participating students and upon requests additional project work can be assigned leading to 6 ECTS.

For information and requests please contact christoph.benzmueller(at)uni-bamberg.de and andrea.vestrucci(at)uni-bamberg.de 

 

Tentative Event Schedules

 

Thursday, December 4: Intl. Workshop on Computational Ontology & Metaphysics

Morning Session

  • 10:00-10:15 Opening: Christoph Benzmüller (U Bamberg)
  • 10:15-11:00 Jan von Plato (U Helsinki): “Modal concepts in Gödel's metamathematics”
  • 11:00-11:35 Brigitte Falkenburg (TU Dortmund): “Gödel, Kant, and the Incompleteness of Physical Knowledge”
  • 11:35-12:10 Martin Korth (U Münster): “Do humans process (also) qualitative information? Help from computational metaphysics welcome!”

Lunch Break 

Afternoon Session 

  • 13:30-14:30 Edward Zalta (Stanford U): How to Ground Semantics in Higher-Order Metaphysics
  • 14:30-15:10 Daniel Kirchner (U Bamberg): Principia Logico-Metaphysica in Isabelle/HOL
  • 15:10-15:30 Grab your coffee
  • 15:30-16:30 Peter Fritz (UC London):  Higher-order Metaphysics
  • 16:30-17:10 Christoph Benzmüller (U Bamberg): Gödel’s and Scott’s variants of the ontological argument in Isabelle/HOL
  • 17:10-17:30 Short break
  • 17:30-18:00 Roundtable debate moderated by Andrea Vestrucci (U Bamberg)

Evening Session 

 

Friday, December 5: Winners' Symposium of the 2025 Kurt Gödel Essay Prize

Morning Session

Lunch Break 

Afternoon Session