Michael Levin
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| Western Philosophy Contemporary Philosophy |
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| Name |
Michael Levin
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| Birth | 21 May 1943 |
| School/tradition | Analytic Philosophy, Reliabilism |
| Main interests | Epistemology, Philosophy of Race |
| Notable ideas | Heritability of Intelligence |
Michael Levin (Ph.D., Columbia University) is professor of philosophy at City University of New York, who has published works on metaphysics, epistemology, race, homosexuality, animal rights, the philosophy of archaeology, the philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, and the philosophy of science. His central research concerns are in Epistemology (Reliabilism and Gettier Problems) and in Philosophy of Race (Heritability of Racial Differences).
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[edit] Philosophical Views
Professor Levin is known for his controversial views in philosophy. He is critical of certain strands of feminism and has argued that homosexual sex is less satisfying than heterosexual sex, because it is a misuse of bodily parts. [1][2] Levin also believes that genetics play an important part in the variation in cultures across the world. He advocates reliabilism as the correct theory of epistemology, and compatibilism as the correct theory of free will. Professor Levin has written for libertarian publications such as the Ludwig von Mises Institute's newsletter "The Free Market" and The Journal of Libertarian Studies. He has garnered attention for defending torture for political purposes as far back as 1982, in an opinion article featured in Newsweek magazine.
Levin has also been intensely criticized for his views on race. Levin has argued that the higher IQ scores of Caucasian-Americans compared to African-Americans is most likely caused by a genetic, rather than environmental, difference between the races.[3][4] He was embroiled in a controversy with a fellow member of the City University that centered on racial politics. The City University censured Levin for his views on race, prompting a lawsuit over academic liberty (Levin won).[5]
He was cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center's publication Intelligence Report (Summer 2006) as repeatedly addressing the American Renaissance, a racialist organization, at their bi-annual conferences. The same article claims that he has since stopped attending because of the anti-Semitism of some of the organization's members, but not because of its explicit racism against other minority groups.[6]
[edit] Selected publications
[edit] Books
- Metaphysics and the Mind-Body Problem, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-824415-0.
- Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean, Praeger Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-275-95789-6
[edit] Articles and essays
- The Case for Torture
- Compatibilism and Special Relativity, an influential essay in the philosophy of physics published recently in the Journal of Philosophy.
- In Defense of Scrooge [1], a libertarian apology in favour of the popular protagonist of Dickens' A Christmas Carol
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ "Why Homosexuality is Abnormal" The Monist, 1984
- ^ "Non-Euclidean Sex" Think, January 2006
- ^ Richardson, Robert C. (July 2000). "BOOK REVIEWS". Ethics 110 (4): 847–48.
- ^ Kamin, Leo (June 1998). "Reviews". South African Journal of Psychology 28 (2): 116–17.
- ^ New Century Foundation (American Renaissance). Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ SPLCenter.org: Irreconcilable Differences
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