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Michael Levin (Ph.D., Columbia University
Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
) is professor of philosophy at City University of New York
City University of New York

Not to be confused with New York University formerly known as the University of the City of New York.For similar uses see University of New York...
, who has published works on metaphysics
Metaphysics

Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics....
, epistemology
Epistemology

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It addresses the questions:...
, race, homosexuality
Homosexuality

Homosexuality refers to human sexual behavior or same-sex attraction between people of the same sex or to homosexual orientation. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "having sexual and romantic attraction primarily or exclusively to members of one?s own sex"; "it also refers to an individual?s sense of personal and social identi...
, animal rights, the philosophy of archaeology, the philosophy of logic
Philosophy of logic

Following the developments in Formal logic with symbolic logic in the late nineteenth century and mathematical logic in the twentieth, topics traditionally treated by logic not being part of formal logic have tended to be termed either philosophy of logic or philosophical logic if no longer simply logic....
, philosophy of language
Philosophy of language

Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for Analytic philosophys is concerned with four central problems: the nature of Meaning , language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language and reality....
, and the philosophy of science
Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
. His central research concerns are in Epistemology
Epistemology

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It addresses the questions:...
 (Reliabilism
Reliabilism

Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophy discipline of epistemology, has been advanced both as a theory of knowledge and of epistemic justification ....
 and Gettier Problems) and in Philosophy of Race (Heritability of Racial Differences).

essor Levin is known for his controversial views in philosophy.






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Michael Levin (Ph.D., Columbia University
Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
) is professor of philosophy at City University of New York
City University of New York

Not to be confused with New York University formerly known as the University of the City of New York.For similar uses see University of New York...
, who has published works on metaphysics
Metaphysics

Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics....
, epistemology
Epistemology

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It addresses the questions:...
, race, homosexuality
Homosexuality

Homosexuality refers to human sexual behavior or same-sex attraction between people of the same sex or to homosexual orientation. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "having sexual and romantic attraction primarily or exclusively to members of one?s own sex"; "it also refers to an individual?s sense of personal and social identi...
, animal rights, the philosophy of archaeology, the philosophy of logic
Philosophy of logic

Following the developments in Formal logic with symbolic logic in the late nineteenth century and mathematical logic in the twentieth, topics traditionally treated by logic not being part of formal logic have tended to be termed either philosophy of logic or philosophical logic if no longer simply logic....
, philosophy of language
Philosophy of language

Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for Analytic philosophys is concerned with four central problems: the nature of Meaning , language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language and reality....
, and the philosophy of science
Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
. His central research concerns are in Epistemology
Epistemology

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It addresses the questions:...
 (Reliabilism
Reliabilism

Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophy discipline of epistemology, has been advanced both as a theory of knowledge and of epistemic justification ....
 and Gettier Problems) and in Philosophy of Race (Heritability of Racial Differences).

Philosophical Views

Professor Levin is known for his controversial views in philosophy. He is critical of certain strands of feminism and has argued that homosexual sex is less satisfying than heterosexual sex, because it is a misuse of bodily parts. Levin also believes that genetics
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
 play an important part in the variation in cultures across the world. He advocates reliabilism
Reliabilism

Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophy discipline of epistemology, has been advanced both as a theory of knowledge and of epistemic justification ....
 as the correct theory of epistemology, and compatibilism as the correct theory of free will. Professor Levin has written for libertarian publications such as the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a right-libertarianism academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy....
's newsletter "The Free Market" and The Journal of Libertarian Studies. He has garnered attention for torture
Torture

Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadism gratification of the torturer, as was the case in the Moors M...
 for political purposes as far back as 1982, in an opinion article featured in Newsweek magazine.

Levin has also been intensely criticized for his views on race. Levin has argued that the higher IQ scores of Caucasian-Americans compared to African-Americans is most likely caused by a genetic, rather than environmental, difference between the races.

He was cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center is an United States non-profit legal organization, internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against White supremacy and its tracking of organizations it calls hate groups....
's publication Intelligence Report (Summer 2006) as repeatedly addressing the American Renaissance
American Renaissance (magazine)

American Renaissance is a monthly racialist magazine published by the New Century Foundation. The magazine's founder Jared Taylor has been called a White separatism by the Southern Poverty Law Center....
, a racialist organization, at their bi-annual conferences. The same article claims that he has since stopped attending because of the anti-Semitism of some of the organization's members, but not because of its explicit racism against other minority groups.

Selected publications


Books

  • Metaphysics and the Mind-Body Problem, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-824415-0.
  • Feminism and Freedom, Transaction Publishers, 1987. ISBN 978-0887386701
  • Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean, Praeger Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-275-95789-6


Articles and essays

  • The Case for Torture
  • Compatibilism and Special Relativity, an influential essay in the philosophy of physics
    Philosophy of physics

    In philosophy, the philosophy of physics studies the fundamental philosophy questions underlying modern physics, the study of matter and energy and how they interaction....
     published recently in the Journal of Philosophy.
  • In Defense of Scrooge , a libertarian apology in favour of the popular protagonist of Dickens' A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol

    A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas is a book by Charles Dickens that was first published on December 19, 1843 with illustrations by John Leech ....


External links

  • at CUNY