J. L. Mackie
J. L. Mackie | |
---|---|
Born | John Leslie Mackie 25 August 1917 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
Died | 12 December 1981 Oxford, England | (aged 64)
Alma mater | |
Spouse |
Joan Meredith (m. 1947) |
Era | Argument from queerness |
John Leslie Mackie
Mackie had influential views on
Life
Mackie was born 25 August 1917 in
Mackie graduated from the University of Sydney in 1938 after studying under
During the
Mackie died in Oxford on 12 December 1981.[6]
Character and family
Mackie is said to have been capable of expressing total disagreement in such a genial way that the person being addressed might mistake his comment for a compliment.[10] This personal style is exemplified by the following words from the preface to Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong:
I am nowhere mainly concerned to refute any individual writer. I believe that all those to whom I have referred, even those with whom I disagree most strongly, have contributed significantly to our understanding of ethics: where I have quoted their actual words, it is because they have presented views or arguments more clearly or more forcefully than I could put them myself.[11]
Mackie married Joan Meredith in 1947. One of their three children,
Philosophical work
Mackie is best known for his contributions to
His most widely known work, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, bluntly begins with the sentence "There are no objective values".
Concerning religion, he was well known for vigorously defending atheism, and also arguing that the problem of evil made untenable the main monotheistic religions.[16] His criticisms of the free will theodicy are particularly significant. He argued that the idea of human free will is no defence for those who wish to believe in an omnicompetent being in the face of evil and suffering, as such a being could have given us both free will and moral perfection, thus resulting in us choosing the good in every situation. In 1955 he published "Evil and Omnipotence", which summarized his view that belief in the existence of evil and an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good god is "positively irrational".[17]
Mackie's views on this so-called logical problem of evil prompted Alvin Plantinga to respond with the "free-will defense", which Mackie later responded in his The Miracle of Theism.
In metaphysics, Mackie made significant contributions relating to the nature of
After being given a copy of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene as a Christmas present,[7] in 1978 Mackie wrote an article in the journal Philosophy praising the book and discussing how its ideas might be applied to moral philosophy.[18] The philosopher Mary Midgley responded in 1979 with "Gene-Juggling", an article arguing that The Selfish Gene was about psychological egoism rather than evolution.[19] This started a dispute between Mackie, Midgley, and Dawkins that was ongoing at the time of Mackie's death.
Publications
Books
- Truth, Probability, and Paradox (1973), ISBN 0-19-824402-9.
- The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation (1980), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824642-0.
- Problems from Locke (1976), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824555-6.
- )
- Hume's Moral Theory (1980), Routledge Keegan & Paul, ISBN 0-7100-0525-3.
- ISBN 0-19-824682-X.
Anthologies
- Logic and Knowledge: Selected Papers, Volume I (1985), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824679-X.
- Persons and Values: Selected Papers, Volume II (1985), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824678-1.
Papers/book chapters
- "What’s Really Wrong with Phenomenalism?" Proceedings of the British Academy 55, 1969 (1971)
For a more complete list of works see "The publications of J. L. Mackie" compiled by Joan Mackie.[20]
References
- JSTOR 20006071
- ^ Allan, James (1996). "The Miracle of Theism: Arguments for and against the Existence of God" (PDF). Otago Law Review. 8: 633.
- OCLC 27171769.
- ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
- ^ a b c d Obituary, The Times, 15 December 1981
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65648. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Mackie, John L, "What's Really Wrong With Phenomenalism",Proceedings of the British Academy 55:113-127 (1969)
- ^ "Philosophical Lectures". The British Academy. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
- ^ Obituary notice, University College Record, 1982
- OL 24952211M.
- ^ "LISTSERV 16.5 - PHILOS-L Archives". listserv.liv.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
- ^ Teaching Staff at D'Overbroeck's College website. Archived from the original Archived 14 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine on 17 February 2016 by Wayback Machine
- ^ Hilary Mackie Faculty website. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018 via Wayback Machine
- error theory, holding that moral judgments, while cognitive, are all false since there are no moral properties about which our moral judgments could be correct.
- ^ See, for example, Mackie 1982.
- JSTOR 2251467.
- S2CID 159925034.
- PMID 11661921.
- ^ In: Honderich, Ted (1985) Morality and Objectivity: A Tribute to J.L. Mackie
Further reading
- ISBN 0-19-726107-8
- ISBN 1-876492-08-2, ch. 5.(author shared eprint)
- ISBN 0-7100-9991-6.
- Brown, Stuart C.; Collinson, Diane; Wilkinson, Robert (2002). Biographical dictionary of twentieth-century philosophers. London: Routledge. OCLC 1100433484.
- )