Who is jl mackie

The influence of Anderson was apparent, but Mackie was far from an uncritical disciple, distancing himself from the more polemical and purely programmatic aspects of Andersonianism. Though a shy and reserved man, Mackie was an avid participant in philosophical discussions. His lucid writing style was a model of analytic elegance. Courteous, genial, modest and unpretentious, he was a patient, dedicated teacher and a wise, conscientious administrator. Survived by his wife and their two sons and three daughters, he died of cancer on 12 December at Oxford and was cremated.

View the front pages for Volume But I am not at present concerned with the merits or faults of such a position. These are first order moral views, positive or negative: the person who adopts either of them is taking a certain practical, normative, stand. By contrast, what I am discussing is a second order view, a view about the status of moral values and the nature of moral valuing, about where and how they fit into the world.

These first and second order views are not merely distinct but completely independent: one could be a second order moral skeptic without being a first order one, or again the other way round. A man could hold strong moral views, and indeed ones whose content was thoroughly conventional, while believing that they were simply attitudes and policies with regard to conduct that he and other people held. Conversely, a man could reject all established morality while believing it to be an objective truth that it was evil or corrupt.

He was in elected a fellow of the British Academy. Interests and character 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.

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.