John leslie mackie

John mackey

He made significant contributions to the philosophy of religion , metaphysics , and the philosophy of language , and is perhaps best known for his views on meta-ethics , especially his defence of moral scepticism. He authored six books. His most widely known, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong , opens by boldly stating that "There are no objective values.

Mackie was born 25 August in Killara , Sydney. Mackie received the Wentworth Travelling Fellowship to study Greats at Oriel College, Oxford , where he graduated with a first in In , he moved to the United Kingdom, becoming the inaugural holder of the chair of philosophy in the University of York , a position he held until when he was instead elected a fellow of University College, Oxford , where he served as praelector.

He died in Oxford on 12 December Mackie is said to have been capable of expressing total disagreement in such a genial way that the person being addressed might mistake the comment for a compliment. I am nowhere mainly concerned to refute any individual writer. I believe that all those to whom I have referred, even those with whom I disagree most strongly, have contributed significantly to our understanding of ethics: where I have quoted their actual words, it is because they have presented views or arguments more clearly or more forcefully than I could put them myself.

Mackie married Joan Meredith in