Michael Martin (philosopher)
| Michael Martin | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 3, 1932 |
| Died | May 27, 2015 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | American |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
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Main interests
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Philosophy of social science, philosophy of law, philosophy of religion, negative atheism |
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Notable ideas
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The transcendental argument for the nonexistence of God |
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Influences
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Michael L. Martin (February 3, 1932 – May 27, 2015) was an American philosopher and former professor at Boston University. Martin specialized in the philosophy of religion, although he also worked on the philosophies of science, law, and social science. He served with the US Marine Corps in Korea. Martin died unexpectedly on 27 May 2015, aged 83.
Martin completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1956 at Arizona State University. He was awarded an MA in philosophy at the University of Arizona in 1958 and in 1962 he was awarded a PhD in philosophy from Harvard University. He was appointed Assistant Professor at University of Colorado in 1962 and in 1965 he moved to Boston University. He was appointed Professor of Philosophy Emeritus after a lifelong career at Boston University.
He is the author or editor of a number of books, including Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (1989), The Case Against Christianity (1991), Atheism, Morality, and Meaning (2002), The Impossibility of God (2003), The Improbability of God (2006), and The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (2006). He sat on the editorial board of the philosophy journal, Philo and wrote many reviews and articles for journals and magazines including Free Inquiry.
In his Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, Martin cites a general absence of an atheistic response to contemporary work in philosophy of religion, and accepts the responsibility of a rigorous defense of non belief as his "cross to bear:"
The aim of this book is not to make atheism a popular belief or even to overcome its invisibility. My object is not utopian. It is merely to provide good reasons for being an atheist. … My object is to show that atheism is a rational position and that belief in God is not. I am quite aware that atheistic beliefs are not always based on reason. My claim is that they should be.
Martin used the concepts of negative and positive atheism as proposed by Antony Flew rather than the terms weak or soft atheism (negative) and strong or hard atheism (positive).
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