J. L. Mackie

John Leslie Mackie (1917–1981) was a philosopher, originally from Sydney, Australia. From 1967 until his death, he was a Fellow of University College, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1974.

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Mackie was well known for his contributions to the field of meta-ethics, where he took the position of moral skepticism, arguing against the objective existence of right and wrong on fundamental grounds concerning what kinds of things those must be, if they exist.

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He was also well known for vigorously defending atheism, and arguing that the problem of evil made untenable the main monotheistic religions. Other areas to which he made significant contributions include the nature of causal relationships, and of conditional statements describing them.

1917: 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar....

1981: 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar....

Philosopher: A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. The word, "philosopher," literally means "lover of wisdom." Greek: "????? + ?????"...