Hermeneutic Realism and Realistic Theism. On Anton Friedrich Koch's Thesis of Subjectivity as a Critique of Theism and Natural Theology

Abstract

This paper discusses some of the critical implications of Anton Friedrich Koch’s “subjectivity thesis” (Subjektivitätsthese) for theism and natural theology. In a first step, I summarize and analyze the subjectivity thesis, Koch’s arguments for it and its consequences for theism and natural theology. In a second step, I use a thought experiment to criticize the central hypothesis that there cannot be a material world without embodied thinking subjects.