Michael Levin (; born 21 May 1943) is an American philosopher and writer. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pr ...

. He has published on

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

, race,

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

, the

philosophy of archaeology The philosophy of archaeology seeks to investigate the foundations, methods and implications of the discipline of archaeology in order to further understand the human past and present. Central questions include what is archaeology? What is the t ...

, the

philosophy of logic Philosophy of logic is the area of philosophy that studies the scope and nature of logic. It investigates the philosophical problems raised by logic, such as the presuppositions often implicitly at work in theories of logic and in their applicatio ...

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, the ...

, and the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ulti ...

. Levin's central research interests are in

(

reliabilism Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophical discipline of epistemology, has been advanced as a theory both of justification and of knowledge. Process reliabilism has been used as an argument against philosophical skepticism, such as th ...

and

Gettier problems The Gettier problem, in the field of epistemology, is a landmark philosophical problem concerning the understanding of descriptive knowledge. Attributed to American philosopher Edmund Gettier, Gettier-type counterexamples (called "Gettier-cases") ...

) and in philosophy of race.

Education

Levin graduated from

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School (pronounced ), commonly referred to among its students as Stuy (pronounced ), is a State school, public university-preparatory school, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school ...

in 1960, earned his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

in 1964, and studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

where he received a doctoral degree in 1969. His dissertation was titled "Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics".

Philosophical views

Levin advocates

and the theory of

compatibilism Compatibilism is the belief that free will and determinism are mutually compatible and that it is possible to believe in both without being logically inconsistent. Compatibilists believe that freedom can be present or absent in situations for re ...

in free will.

Political and social views

Torture

In the 1982 article "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.

Economics

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 benefit his employees, society at large, and himself."

Homosexuality

Levin has questioned the morality, wisdom, and naturalness of

. 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. In his book ''

Sexual Desire Sexual desire is an emotion and motivational state characterized by an interest in sexual objects or activities, or by a drive to seek out sexual objects or to engage in sexual activities. It is an aspect of sexuality, which varies significantly ...

'' (1986), the philosopher

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views. Editor from 1982 ...

criticized Levin's attempt to show that homosexuality is abnormal, calling it absurd. Timothy Murphy has criticized Levin's arguments about homosexuality in detail. Murphy states in '' Gay Science'' (1997) 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.

Feminism

Feminist

Susan Faludi Susan Charlotte Faludi (; born April 18, 1959) is an American feminist, journalist, and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitze ...

writes in '' Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'' (1991) that Levin's 1988 book ''Feminism and Freedom'' characterizes feminism as an "antidemocratic, if not totalitarian, ideology" without a single redeeming feature.Faludi, Susan. ''Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1992. pp. 329-330

Race

Levin agrees with

Arthur Jensen Arthur Robert Jensen (August 24, 1923 – October 22, 2012) was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics an ...

and

Richard Lynn Richard Lynn (born 20 February 1930) is a controversial English psychologist and author. He is a former professor emeritus of psychology at Ulster University, having had the title withdrawn by the university in 2018. He is former assistant edit ...

that white people score higher on IQ tests than black people due to genetic differences—a view that has been criticized by scholars such as

Leon Kamin Leon J. Kamin (December 29, 1927 – December 22, 2017) was an American psychologist known for his contributions to learning theory and his critique of estimates of the heritability of IQ. He studied under Richard Solomon at Harvard and contribute ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

. Levin defended this view in an exchange in the journal ''

Philosophy of the Social Sciences The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences (psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology, etc...). Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities be ...

''. Throughout the 1990s Levin frequently wrote about race differences in intelligence, biology, and morality for the

white nationalist White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwoo ...

publication ''

American Renaissance The American Renaissance was a period of American architecture and the arts from 1876 to 1917, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance h ...

''. The

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...

classifies him as an "unabashed white supremacist."

Personal life

Michael H. Hart Michael H. Hart (born April 27, 1932), is an American astrophysicist, author, amateur historian, researcher, and white separatist/white nationalist. Since 1978, he has published five books, most notably of the best-selling work, '' The 100: A Ra ...

, he is one of the few ethnic

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

supporters of

white nationalism White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a Race (human categorization), raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbar ...

.Carol M. Swain, ''The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration'', Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 70 Levin is married to philosopher of mathematics Margarita Levin.

Selected publications

Books

* ''Metaphysics and the Mind-Body Problem'', Oxford University Press, 1979. . * ''Feminism and Freedom'', Transaction Publishers, 1987. * ''Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean'', Praeger Publishers, 1997.

Articles and essays

* 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. Kant's 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