Michael Levin

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Michael Levin
Born 21 May 1943 (age 71)
Era Contemporary Philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Analytic philosophy, Reliabilism
Main interests Epistemology, philosophy of race
Notable ideas Heritability of intelligence
Michael Levin (/"l#v$n/; born 21 May 1943) is a philosophy professor at City University of New York.
He has published on metaphysics, epistemology, race, homosexuality, animal rights, the
philosophy of archaeology, the philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, and the philosophy of
science.

Levin's central research interests are in epistemology (reliabilism and Gettier problems) and in
philosophy of race.

Contents [hide]
1 Education
2 Philosophical views
3 Political and social views
3.1 Torture
3.2 Economics
3.3 Homosexuality
3.4 Feminism
3.5 Race
4 Personal life
5 Selected publications
5.1 Books
5.2 Articles and essays
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Education[edit]
Levin studied at Columbia University where he received a doctoral degree.

Philosophical views[edit]
Levin advocates reliabilism in epistemology and the theory of compatibilism in free will.[citation
needed]

Political and social views[edit]
Torture[edit]
In a 1982 essay "The Case for Torture" Levin argued that "there are situations where torture is not
merely permissible but morally mandatory." Levin reiterated this view in 2009.[1]

Economics[edit]
For Christmas 2000, Levin published a libertarian critique of Dickens's popular novella A Christmas
Carol in which he defends Scrooge as "an entrepreneur whose ideas and practices benet his
employees, society at large, and himself."[2]

Homosexuality[edit]
Levin has questioned the morality, wisdom, and naturalness of homosexuality.[3] He argues that
homosexual acts are abnormal because their participants are not using their sexual organs for
what they are for, and that this abnormality must be a source of unhappiness, even though it may
go unrecognized. Philosopher Roger Scruton has criticized Levin's attempt to show that
homosexuality is abnormal, calling it absurd.[4] Timothy Murphy has criticized Levin's arguments
about homosexuality in detail.[3] Murphy states that while Levin "more or less accepts that there is
a strong biological basis for homoerotic orientation" he nevertheless believes that discrimination
against gay people may be defensible on several grounds, including the possibility that there is a
biologically based dislike of homosexuality.[5]

Feminism[edit]
Feminist Susan Faludi writes that Levin's 1988 book Feminism and Freedom characterizes
feminism as an "antidemocratic, if not totalitarian, ideology" without a single redeeming feature.[6]

Race[edit]
Levin agrees with Arthur Jensen and Richard Lynn that white people score higher on IQ tests than
black people due to genetic differencesa view that has been criticized by scholars such as Leon
Kamin of Princeton University.[7][8]

Personal life[edit]
Levin is married to philosopher of mathematics Margarita Levin.[6]

Selected publications[edit]
Books[edit]
Metaphysics and the Mind-Body Problem, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-824415-0.
Feminism and Freedom, Transaction Publishers, 1987. ISBN 978-0-88738-670-1
Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean, Praeger Publishers, 1997. ISBN
0-275-95789-6
Articles and essays[edit]
Levin, M. E. 1968. Fine, Mathematics, and Theory Change. The Journal of Philosophy 65, no. 2:
52-56.
Levin, M. E. 1971. Length Relativity. The Journal of Philosophy 68, no. 6: 164-174.
Levin, M. E. 1973. On explanation in archaeology: a rebuttal to Fritz and Plog. American Antiquity
38, no. 4: 387-395.
Levin, M. E. 1974. Kants Derivation of the Formula of Universal Law as an Ontological Argument.
Kant-Studien 65, no. 1-4: 50-66.
Levin, M. E. 1975. Kripke's argument against the identity thesis. The Journal of Philosophy 72, no.
6: 149-167.
Levin, M. E. 1975. Relativity, Spatial and Ontological. Nous: 243-267.
Levin, M. E. 1976. The extensionality of causation and causal-explanatory contexts. Philosophy of
Science 43, no. 2: 266-277.
Levin, M. E. 1976. On the ascription of functions to objects, with special reference to inference in
archaeology. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 6, no. 3: 227.
Levin, M. E. 1977. Animal rights evaluated. The Humanist 37, no. 4: 12-15.
Levin, M. E., and M. R. Levin. 1977. Flagpoles, shadows and deductive explanation. Philosophical
Studies 32, no. 3: 293-299.
Levin, M. E., and M. R. Levin. 1978. The independence results of set theory: An informal
exposition. Synthese 38, no. 1: 1-34.
Levin, M. E., and M. R. Levin. 1978. Lavoisier's Slow Burn. Philosophy of Science 45, no. 4:
626-629.
Levin, M. E. 1979. On theory-change and meaning-change. Philosophy of Science 46, no. 3:
407-424.
Levin, M. E. 1979. Quine's View (s) of Logical Truth. Essays on the Philosophy ofW. V. Quine:
45-67.
Levin, M. E. 1979. The universalizability of moral judgments revisited. Mind 88, no. 1: 115.
Levin, M. E. 1979. Forcing and the Indeterminacy of Translation. Erkenntnis 14, no. 1: 25-32.
Levin, M. E. 1979. Ahab as Socratic Philosopher: The Myth of the Cave Inverted. ATQ: The
American Transcendental Quarterly 41: 61-73.
Levin, M. E., and M. R. Levin. 1979. The modal confusion in Rawls' original position. Analysis 39,
no. 2: 82.
Levin, M. E. 1980. Reverse discrimination, shackled runners, and personal identity. Philosophical
Studies 37, no. 2: 139-149.
Levin, M. E. 1981. Equality of opportunity. The Philosophical Quarterly 31, no. 123: 110-125.
Levin, M. E. 1981. Is racial discrimination special? The Journal of Value Inquiry 15, no. 3: 225-234.
Levin, M. E. 1981. Phenomenal Properties. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 42, no. 1:
42-58.
Levin, M. E. 1984. Why we believe in other minds. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
44, no. 3: 343-359.
Levin, M. E. 2007. Bundling Hume with Kripkenstein. Synthese 155, no. 1: 35-64.
Levin, M. E. 2007. Compatibilism and Special Relativity. The Journal of philosophy 104, no. 9:
433-463.
Levin, M. E. nd. The Case for Torture
Levin, M. E. nd. In Defense of Scrooge [1], a libertarian apology in favor of the popular protagonist
of Dickens' A Christmas Carol
See also[edit]
American philosophy
Biology and sexual orientation
List of American philosophers
Logical truth
References[edit]
Jump up ^ G. Jeffrey MacDonald, War can be justied. What about torture? The Pew Forum on
Religion & Public Life. May 6, 2009. Accessed February 1, 2010
Jump up ^ M. Levin, "In Defense of Scrooge" Mises Daily https://mises.org/daily/573/In-Defense-
of-Scrooge
^ Jump up to: a b Soble, Alan (1980). Soble, Alan, ed. The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary
Readings. Totowa, New Jersey: Littleeld, Adams & Co. pp. xii, xiv. ISBN 0-8226-0351-9.
Jump up ^ Scruton, Roger. Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Orion Books,
1994. p. 410
Jump up ^ Murphy, Timothy F. Gay Science: The Ethics of Sexual Orientation Research. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1997. p. 251
^ Jump up to: a b Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women. London: Chatto
& Windus, 1992. pp. 329-330
Jump up ^ Richardson, Robert C. (July 2000). "Book Reviews: Michael Levin. Why Race Matters.".
Ethics 110 (4): 84748. doi:10.1086/233383.
Jump up ^ Kamin, L. J (1997). "The Racial Fanatic at City College of New York". Journal of Blacks
in Higher Education: 126128.