John Leslie Mackie

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John Leslie Mackie (born August 28, 1917 in Sydney , Australia , † December 12, 1981 in Oxford ) was an Australian philosopher.

Life

Mackie graduated from the University of Sydney in 1938 and received the Wentworth Traveling Fellowship, which enabled him to stay in Oxford from 1938 to 1940. After his military service he became a lecturer, then senior lecturer for moral and political philosophy at the University of Sydney (1946–1954) and then professor for philosophy at the Universities of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), York (England) and Oxford (England) and from 1974 member of the British Academy .

He is considered to be one of the most important empirically oriented philosophers of the 20th century, who also dealt with topics that traditionally more metaphysically oriented philosophers worked on. These topics include a moral philosophy and ethics linked to David Hume , which he continues with the means of analytical philosophy , as well as an examination of the most important proofs of God in his work The Miracle of Theism . His conclusion there:

"In any case, it is not easy to defend religion once you have admitted that the statement, understood as a factual assertion, that there is a God, cannot be upheld by reason."

In the field of ethics , he is considered one of the most important representatives of the so-called error theory of morality. Mackie argues against the ethical positions that assume the existence of objective values ​​independent of time and circumstances (e.g. Immanuel Kant with his categorical imperative ), criticizes John Stewart Mills utilitarianism and John Rawls ' theory of justice as fairness , which is less fair as the search suggested by Mackie for a balance of interests through a 3-stage universalization. He advocates a “practical system” of morality based on self-love and self-centered altruism in order to promote an expansion of sympathy in order to defuse the necessary social conflicts - a (Christian) charity now understood as a global obligation to charity , which in the The Old Testament was mainly related to the people of the Jews to defuse internal conflicts until the Roman period, so it describes it as an “ethics of illusions”.

In addition, Mackie worked on general epistemological questions, including in particular in the areas of truth and probability , paradoxes and the complex of issues of causality , to which he contributed the concept of the INUS condition .

Works

  • Truth, Probability, and Paradox (1973). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824402-9
  • The Cement of the Universe. A study of causation (1974). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824642-0
  • Problems from Locke (1976). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824555-6
  • Ethics. Inventing Right and Wrong (1977). Viking Press, ISBN 0-14-013558-8
  • The Third Theory of Law (1977). Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 1.
  • Hume's Moral Theory (1980). Routledge Keegan & Paul, ISBN 0-7100-0525-3
  • The Miracle of Theism. Arguments for and against the Existence of God (1982). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824682-X
  • Logic and Knowledge: Selected Papers, Volume I (1994). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824679-X
  • Persons and Values: Selected Papers, Volume II (1985). Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824678-1

published in German:

  • Ethics. The invention of the morally right and wrong (transl. Rudolf Ginters). Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-007680-4
  • The miracle of theism. Arguments for and against the existence of God (transl. Rudolf Ginters). Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-008075-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Leslie Mackie: The Miracle of Theism. Arguments for and against the existence of God. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, p. 402.
  2. ^ John Leslie Mackie: Ethics. The invention of right and wrong. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981.
  3. ^ John Leslie Mackie: Ethics. The invention of right and wrong. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981, p. 216 ff., 289.
  4. ↑ Matthias Köckert: The ten commandments. Beck, Munich 2007, pp. 75 ff., 81 ff.
  5. ^ John Leslie Mackie: Ethics. The invention of right and wrong. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981, p. 163 ff., 188 f.

literature

  • Ted Honderich (Editor): Morality and Objectivity: A Tribute to JL Mackie. Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1985, ISBN 0-7100-9991-6
  • Richard Joyce , Simon Kirchin (Eds.): A World Without Values: Essays on John Mackie's Moral Error Theory. Springer Press, 2009.
  • Wolfgang Stegmüller : Main currents of contemporary philosophy (Vol. IV, Chapter II, Part A. Moral philosophy without metaphysics; Part B. Mackie's miracles of theism). Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-520-41501-1 .
  • John McDowell : John Leslie Mackie, 1917–1981 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 76 , 1991, pp. 487-498 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mackie, John Leslie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , Australia
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1981
Place of death Oxford