PROSE 2020 Single Volume Reference Finalist!
Philosophers throughout history have debated the existence of gods, but it is only in recent years that the absence of such a belief has become a significant topic of philosophical analysis, in particular for philosophers of religion. Although it is difficult to trace the historical contours of atheism as the lack of belief in a higher power, the reasoned, reflective, and thoughtful rejection of theism has become commonplace in many modern intellectual circles, including academic philosophy where disciplinary data indicates that a large majority of philosophers self-identify as atheists. As the first book of its kind to bring together a collection of writing on the philosophical aspects of atheism both historical and contemporary, the Companion to Atheism and Philosophy stages an explicit, constructive, and comprehensive conversation between philosophy and atheism to examine the ways in which atheist thought intersects with ideas and positions from a variety of philosophical and theological sub-disciplines.
The Companion begins by addressing the foundational questions and lingering controversies which underpin philosophical thought about atheism, exploring the implications of major developments in the history of philosophy for the modern atheistic worldview. Divided into eight distinct sections, essays consider a range of thinkers who were widely believed to have been atheists–including David Hume, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton–and survey different kinds of objections to theism and atheism, including logical, evidential, normative, and prudential. Later chapters trace the relationship between atheism and metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy oriented around topics such as pragmatism, postmodernism, freedom, education, violence, and happiness.
Deftly curated and thoughtfully composed, A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy is the most ambitious and authoritative account of philosophical thinking on atheism available, and is a first-rate resource for academics, professionals, and students of philosophy, religious studies, and theology.
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Notes on Contributors viii
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
Graham Oppy
Part I Individual Thinkers 13
1 Hume 15
Jennifer Smalligan Marusic´
2 Holbach 28
Michael Le Buffe and Emilie Gourdon
3 Marx 43
Vanessa Wills
4 Wollstonecraft 58
Sandrine Bergès
5 Cady Stanton 71
Claudette Fillard
6 Russell 83
Carolyn Swanson
Part II Philosophical Movements 97
7 Empiricism 99
Gregory Dawes
8 Pragmatism 111
Robert Almeder
9 Existentialism 123
Mariam Thalos
10 Postmodernism 138
Christopher Watkin
11 Naturalism 152
Eric Steinhart
Part III Critiques of Theism 167
12 Logical Objections to Theism 169
Stephen Law
13 Evidential Objections to Theism 191
Herman Philipse
14 Normative Objections to Theism 204
Stephen Maitzen
15 Prudential Objections to Theism 216
Guy Kahane
Part IV Metaphysics 235
16 Freedom 237
Alfred Mele
17 Supernatural 250
Berit Brogaard
18 Death 262
Beth Seacord
Part V Epistemology 275
19 Skepticism 277
Duncan Pritchard
20 Methods of Science 291
Elliott Sober
21 Evidence 303
Michael Tooley
22 Evolution 323
Michael Ruse
Part VI Ethics 341
23 Meta-Ethics 343
Elizabeth Tropman
24 Meaning 355
Thaddeus Metz
25 Normative Skepticism 367
Susana Nuccetelli
Part VII Politics 381
26 Education 383
Jennifer Bleazby
27 Happiness 396
Gregory S. Paul
28 Violence 421
Steve Clarke
29 Church and State 436
Cristina Lafont
Part VIII Critiques of Atheism 449
30 Logical Objections to Atheism 451
Christopher Gregory Weaver
31 Evidential Objections to Atheism 476
Helen De Cruz
32 Normative Objections to Atheism 491
C. Stephen Evans
33 Prudential Objections to Atheism 506
Amanda Askell
Bibliography 521
Index 565
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Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University, CEO of the Australasian Association of Philosophy, and a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of Humanities. He has published a wide range of books in philosophy of religion, including Naturalism and Religion, Atheism and Agnosticism, and Reading Philosophy of Religion, and has recently focused on the development of atheistic and naturalistic understandings of religion.