Some Emendations of Gödel's Ontological Proof

A new version of the ontological argument for the existence of God was outlined by Kurt Godel and elaborated by Dana Scott. J. Howard Sobel has given a careful explication of the details and has provided a powerful critique l , I believe that Sobel's main objection is conclusive against the argument as sketched by Godel. But it is possible to correct the argument, making changes which can be independently motivated, and in such a way that the revised argument is immune to the objection. And a definition of one of Godel's primitive concepts enables the proof of some of his axioms. For the sake of those who do not enjoy symbolism, I give a statement of Godel's argument and the suggested revisions in the vernacular. Some corollaries and a lemma have been separated off in order to clarify the proof and to isolate the difficulty. A brief statement of the formalities is given in the appendix. To see a full formalization of Godel's original version, consult Sobel.