Table Of ContentA Companion to Atheism
and Philosophy
Blackwell Companions to Philosophy
This outstanding student reference series offers a comprehensive and authoritative survey of philosophy as a whole. Written
by today’s leading philosophers, each volume provides lucid and engaging coverage of the key figures, terms, topics, and
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Already published in the series:
1. The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, Second Edition 37. A Companion to Plato
Edited by Nicholas Bunnin and Eric Tsui‐James Edited by Hugh H. Benson
2. A Companion to Ethics 38. A Companion to Descartes
Edited by Peter Singer Edited by Janet Broughton and John Carriero
3. A Companion to Aesthetics, Second Edition 39. A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology
Edited by Stephen Davies, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Edited by Sahotra Sarkar and Anya Plutynski
Robert Hopkins, Robert Stecker, and David E. Cooper 40. A Companion to Hume
4. A Companion to Epistemology, Second Edition Edited by Elizabeth S. Radcliffe
Edited by Jonathan Dancy, Ernest Sosa and Matthias Steup 41. A Companion to the Philosophy of History and
5. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy Historiography
(two‐volume set), Second Edition Edited by Aviezer Tucker
Edited by Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit 42. A Companion to Aristotle
6. A Companion to Philosophy of Mind Edited by Georgios Anagnostopoulos
Edited by Samuel Guttenplan 43. A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology
7. A Companion to Metaphysics, Second Edition Edited by Jan‐Kyrre Berg Olsen, Stig Andur Pedersen, and
Edited by Jaegwon Kim, Ernest Sosa and Gary S. Rosenkrantz Vincent F. Hendricks
8. A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, 44. A Companion to Latin American Philosophy
Second Edition Edited by Susana Nuccetelli, Ofelia Schutte, and Otávio Bueno
Edited by Dennis Patterson 45. A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature
9. A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Second Edition Edited by Garry L. Hagberg and Walter Jost
Edited by Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper, and Philip L. Quinn 46. A Companion to the Philosophy of Action
10. A Companion to the Philosophy of Language, Edited by Timothy O’Connor and Constantine Sandis
Second Edition (two-volume set) 47. A Companion to Relativism
Edited by Bob Hale, Crispin Wright, and Alex Miller Edited by Steven D. Hales
11. A Companion to World Philosophies 48. A Companion to Hegel
Edited by Eliot Deutsch and Ron Bontekoe Edited by Stephen Houlgate and Michael Baur
12. A Companion to Continental Philosophy 49. A Companion to Schopenhauer
Edited by Simon Critchley and William Schroeder Edited by Bart Vandenabeele
13. A Companion to Feminist Philosophy 50. A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy
Edited by Alison M. Jaggar and Iris Marion Young Edited by Steven M. Emmanuel
14. A Companion to Cognitive Science 51. A Companion to Foucault
Edited by William Bechtel and George Graham Edited by Christopher Falzon, Timothy O’Leary, and
15. A Companion to Bioethics, Second Edition Jana Sawicki
Edited by Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer 52. A Companion to the Philosophy of Time
16. A Companion to the Philosophers Edited by Heather Dyke and Adrian Bardon
Edited by Robert L. Arrington 53. A Companion to Donald Davidson
17. A Companion to Business Ethics Edited by Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig
Edited by Robert E. Frederick 54. A Companion to Rawls
18. A Companion to the Philosophy of Science Edited by Jon Mandle and David Reidy
Edited by W. H. Newton‐Smith 55. A Companion to W.V.O Quine
19. A Companion to Environmental Philosophy Edited by Gilbert Harman and Ernest Lepore
Edited by Dale Jamieson 56. A Companion to Derrida
20. A Companion to Analytic Philosophy Edited by Zeynep Direk and Leonard Lawlor
Edited by A. P. Martinich and David Sosa 57. A Companion to David Lewis
21. A Companion to Genethics Edited by Barry Loewer and Jonathan Schaffer
Edited by Justine Burley and John Harris 58. A Companion to Kierkegaard
22. A Companion to Philosophical Logic Edited by Jon Stewart
Edited by Dale Jacquette 59. A Companion to Locke
23. A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy Edited by Matthew Stuart
Edited by Steven Nadler 60. The Blackwell Companion to Hermeneutics
24. A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages Edited by Niall Keane and Chris Lawn
Edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia and Timothy B. Noone 61. A Companion to Ayn Rand
25. A Companion to African‐American Philosophy Edited by Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri
Edited by Tommy L. Lott and John P. Pittman 62. The Blackwell Companion to Naturalism
26. A Companion to Applied Ethics Edited by Kelly James Clark
Edited by R. G. Frey and Christopher Heath Wellman 63. A Companion to Mill
27. A Companion to the Philosophy of Education Edited by Christopher Macleod and Dale E. Miller
Edited by Randall Curren 64. A Companion to Experimental Philosophy
28. A Companion to African Philosophy Edited by Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter
Edited by Kwasi Wiredu 65. A Companion to Applied Philosophy
29. A Companion to Heidegger Edited by Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen,
Edited by Hubert L. Dreyfus and Mark A. Wrathall Kimberley Brownlee, and David Coady
30. A Companion to Rationalism 66. A Companion to Wittgenstein
Edited by Alan Nelson Edited by Hans-Johann Glock and John Hyman
31. A Companion to Pragmatism 67. A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir
Edited by John R. Shook and Joseph Margolis Edited by Laura Hengehold and Nancy Bauer
32. A Companion to Ancient Philosophy 68. A Concise Companion to Confucius
Edited by Mary Louise Gill and Pierre Pellegrin Edited by Paul R. Goldin
33. A Companion to Nietzsche 69. The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism
Edited by Keith Ansell Pearson Edited by Jonathan J. Loose, Angus J. L. Menuge, and
34. A Companion to Socrates J. P. Moreland (Editor)
Edited by Sara Ahbel‐Rappe and Rachana Kamtekar 70. A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
35. A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism Edited by John Shand
Edited by Hubert L. Dreyfus and Mark A. Wrathall 71. A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy
36. A Companion to Kant Edited by Graham Oppy
Edited by Graham Bird
A Companion to
Atheism and Philosophy
Edited by
Graham Oppy
This edition first published 2019
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Oppy, Graham, 1960– editor.
Title: A companion to atheism and philosophy / edited by Graham Oppy.
Description: First Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2019. | Series: Blackwell companions
to philosophy ; 66 | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019006681 (print) | LCCN 2019008444 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119119180
(Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119119227 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119119111 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Atheism. | Philosophy. | Philosophy and religion.
Classification: LCC BL2747.3 (ebook) | LCC BL2747.3 .C6175 2019 (print) | DDC 211/.8–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006681
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Ramón Espelt Photography/Getty Images
Set in 10/12.5pt Photina by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Notes on Contributors viii
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
Graham Oppy
Part I Individual Thinkers 13
1 Hume 15
Jennifer Smalligan Marušić
2 Holbach 28
Michael LeBuffe and Emilie Gourdon
3 Marx 43
Vanessa Wills
4 Wollstonecraft 58
Sandrine Bergès
5 Cady Stanton 71
Claudette Fillard
6 Russell 83
Carolyn Swanson
Part II Philosophical Movements 97
7 Empiricism 99
Gregory Dawes
8 Pragmatism 111
Robert Almeder
v
Contents
9 Existentialism 123
Mariam Thalos
10 Postmodernism 138
Christopher Watkin
11 Naturalism 152
Eric Steinhart
Part III Critiques of Theism 167
12 Logical Objections to Theism 169
Stephen Law
13 Evidential Objections to Theism 191
Herman Philipse
14 Normative Objections to Theism 204
Stephen Maitzen
15 Prudential Objections to Theism 216
Guy Kahane
Part IV Metaphysics 235
16 Freedom 237
Alfred Mele
17 Supernatural 250
Berit Brogaard
18 Death 262
Beth Seacord
Part V Epistemology 275
19 Skepticism 277
Duncan Pritchard
20 Methods of Science 291
Elliott Sober
21 Evidence 303
Michael Tooley
22 Evolution 323
Michael Ruse
vi
CONTENTS
Part VI Ethics 341
23 Meta-Ethics 343
Elizabeth Tropman
24 Meaning 355
Thaddeus Metz
25 Normative Skepticism 367
Susana Nuccetelli
Part VII Politics 381
26 Education 383
Jennifer Bleazby
27 Happiness 396
Gregory S. Paul
28 Violence 421
Steve Clarke
29 Church and State 436
Cristina Lafont
Part VIII Critiques of Atheism 449
30 Logical Objections to Atheism 451
Christopher Gregory Weaver
31 Evidential Objections to Atheism 476
Helen De Cruz
32 Normative Objections to Atheism 491
C. Stephen Evans
33 Prudential Objections to Atheism 506
Amanda Askell
Bibliography 521
Index 565
vii
Notes on Contributors
Robert Almeder is Distinguished Emeritus Philosopher from Georgia State University.
He has published over one hundred peer‐reviewed essays and 26 books focusing mostly
on American philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of science and mind-body problem.
He is a former editor of The American Philosophical Quarterly, and chaired for three years
the Fulbright Foundation Committee on the Discipline of Philosophy. Recent books
include Truth and Skepticism (2011), Harmless Naturalism (1999), ‘Materialism,
Reincarnation, and Cartesian Dualism’ (under review).
Amanda Askell received her PhD in philosophy from New York University for a thesis
on infinite ethics. Prior to this, she completed a BPhil in philosophy at the University of
Oxford. Her research interests include ethics, formal epistemology, and decision theory.
Sandrine Bergès is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Bilkent
University, Ankara, Turkey. She is the author of the Guidebook to Wollstonecraft’s A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (2013). co‐editor with Alan Coffee of The Social and
Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft (2016) and with Alan Coffee and Eileen Hunt
Botting of Wollstonecraftian Mind (2016).
Jennifer Bleazby is a philosopher of education in the Faculty of Education, Monash
University, Australia. She is the author of Social Reconstruction Learning: Dualism, Dewey
and Philosophy in Schools (2013) and an editor of the forthcoming collection, Theory and
Philosophy in Educational Research: Methodological Dialogues (2017).
Berit Brogaard is professor of philosophy at University of Miami and the Director of
the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research. Her areas of research include philosophy
of perception, philosophy of emotion, philosophy of language and cognitive science.
She is the author of the books Transient Truths (2012), On Romantic Love (2015), The
Superhuman Mind (2015), and Seeing & Saying (2018).
Steve Clarke is an associate professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences
at Charles Sturt University and a Senior Research Associate of the Uehiro Centre for
Practical Ethics, Charles Sturt University and a Senior Research Fellow in the Wellcome
Centre for Ethics and Humanities, University of Oxford.
viii
