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J. L. Mackie

John Leslie Mackie FBA (25 August 1917 – 12 December 1981) was an Australian philosopher. He made significant contributions to ethics, the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language.

For other people named John Mackie, see John Mackie (disambiguation).

J. L. Mackie

FBA

John Leslie Mackie

(1917-08-25)25 August 1917
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

12 December 1981(1981-12-12) (aged 64)

Oxford, England
Joan Meredith
​
(m. 1947)​

20th-century philosophy

Western philosophy

John Anderson

Argument from queerness

Mackie had influential views on metaethics, including his defence of moral scepticism and his sophisticated defence of atheism. He wrote six books. His most widely known, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (1977), opens by boldly stating, "There are no objective values." It goes on to argue that because of this, ethics must be invented rather than discovered. His posthumously published The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God (1982)[1] has been called a tour de force in contemporary analytic philosophy.[2] The atheist philosopher Kai Nielsen described it as "one of the most, probably the most, distinguished articulation of an atheistic point of view given in the twentieth century."[3] In 1980 Time magazine described him as "perhaps the ablest of today's atheistic philosophers."[4]

Truth, Probability, and Paradox (1973), , ISBN 0-19-824402-9.

Oxford University Press

The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation (1980), Oxford University Press,  0-19-824642-0.

ISBN

Problems from Locke (1976), Oxford University Press,  0-19-824555-6.

ISBN

(1977), Viking Press, ISBN 0-14-013558-8. (1978 Reprint Available for loan at Open Library)

Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong

Hume's Moral Theory (1980), Routledge Keegan & Paul,  0-7100-0525-3.

ISBN

: Arguments for and against the Existence of God (1982), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824682-X.

The Miracle of Theism

. (1991) "Mackie, John Leslie, 1917–1981" in Proceedings of the British Academy 76 ISBN 0-19-726107-8

McDowell, John

. (2003) Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia, Macleay Press, ISBN 1-876492-08-2, ch. 5. (author shared eprint)

Franklin, James

. (ed). (1985) Morality and Objectivity: A Tribute to J. L. Mackie, Routledge Kegan & Paul, ISBN 0-7100-9991-6.

Honderich, Ted

Brown, Stuart C.; Collinson, Diane; Wilkinson, Robert (2002). Biographical dictionary of twentieth-century philosophers. London: Routledge.  978-1-134-92796-8. OCLC 1100433484.

ISBN

(2014) [2010]. "Mackie, J. L.". In Oppy, Graham; Trakakis, Nick (eds.). A companion to philosophy in Australia & New Zealand (PDF) (Second ed.). Clayton, Victoria. ISBN 978-1-925495-26-3. OCLC 904689134.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Campbell, Keith