Michael Martin (philosopher)

Michael L. Martin ( born February 3, 1932) is an American philosopher. He taught until his retirement as a professor at Boston University.

He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University and was a professor in Boston since 1975.

Martin's research focuses on the philosophy of religion, he has, however, also worked for the Philosophy of Social Sciences and Philosophy of Law. Martin has defended his atheism in books and articles with transcendental arguments against the existence of God. He called his argument for the nonexistence of God TANG ( Transcendental Argument for the Nonexistence of God). Martin points out in his philosophical justification of atheism, Atheism: A Philosophical Justification on the small proportion of atheist contributions in the current American religious and philosophical debate: " This book aims to make atheism not popular, not even make it culturally visible. I have no utopian goals. I just want to provide good reasons to be an atheist. I want to show that atheism is a rational position and the belief in God is not. I am aware that atheistic beliefs are not always justified rationally, but they should be. "

Martin represents a methodological and ontological naturalism, which, however, no reductionism or physicalism include you. Specifically, Martin goes on the assumption that the existence of abstract entities and moral facts of a physicalist ontology contradicts. Martin's thesis that ethical realism and atheism are compatible formulated essential in dealing with the subjectivist ethics of the Australian philosopher John Leslie Mackie. Unlike Mackie Martin assumes that moral facts and properties are ontologically unproblematic parts of nature. Thus he argues against Mackie about that disagreement in ethical issues were not a sufficient reason to doubt the moral facts, because they differed even degree of scientific disagreement, neither in structure.

Martin advises the Secular Student Alliance and is co-editor of the journal Philo.

Works

  • By M. Foster: Probability, Confirmation and Simplicity. Odyssey Press, New York, 1966.
  • Concepts of Science Education: A Philosophical Analysis. Scott Foresman, Chicago, 1972 ISBN 0-8191-4479-7
  • Social Science and Philosophical Analysis: Essays on The Philosophy of The Social Sciences. University Press of America, Washington, DC, 1978.
  • The Legal Philosophy of H.L.A. Hart: A Critical Appraisal. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1987. ISBN 0-87722-471-4
  • Atheism: A Philosophical Justification. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1989, reprint 1992, ISBN 0-87722-943-0
  • The Case Against Christianity. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1991. ISBN 1-56639-081-8
  • The Big Domino in the Sky and Other Atheistic Tales. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1996. ISBN 1-57392-111-4
  • Legal Realism: American and Scandinavian. Peter Lang, New York, 1997. ISBN 0-8204-3462-0
  • Atheism, Morality, and Meaning. Prometheus, Amherst, NY, 2002. ISBN 1-57392-987-5
  • With R. Monnier: The Impossibility of God. Prometheus, Amherst, NY 2003 /2006. ISBN 1-59102-120-0 / ISBN 1-59102-381-5
  • Theological Statements, Phenomenalistic Language and Confirmation. In: Religious Studies, no. 14, 1978, p 217-221.
  • The verificationist Challenge. In: Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro ( eds. ): A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Blackwell, Oxford 1997, pp. 204-212.
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