The Quest for Truth of Stephen Hawking

Abstract

With his bestselling publication, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking in-troduced 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 his quest for the ultimate truth. The current study presents a philosophical analysis of this search in terms of Aristotle’s and Aquinas’s classical philosophy. Cau-sality is the central concept employed by Hawking. However, in modern scientific and philosophical literature, its meaning is limited to temporal causality compared to the view of classical philosophy. Only the latter one accepts causality from outside space and time, in 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.