Mylan Engel

Mylan Engel

Full name	Mylan Engel
Born	1960
Era	21st-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Analytic Philosophy
Main interests	Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, Animal Rights
Influenced by Thomas Reid and Peter Singer

Mylan Engel Jr. (born 1960) is an associate professor of philosophy at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.^[1]

Biography

Born in Alabama and educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of Arizona, he was hired by Northern Illinois University in 1988. Engel has also served as Guest Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria (1999) and University of Maribor, Slovenia (1999–2002).

Engel's specialties are Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid, Animal Ethics, and Environmental Ethics.

Engel is a "moral vegetarian" (vegan) -the belief that we are morally obligated to refrain from eating meat—and has argued that virtually all humans hold beliefs that, if consistently applied, would make them moral vegetarians as well.^[2]

He is also a religious skeptic who contends that there are no good reasons for believing in God. He goes on to argue that the absence of positive evidence for God's existence makes atheism (disbelief in God) more defensible than agnosticism (suspension of belief as to whether God exists or not). Here Engel points out that we generally disbelieve in creatures like unicorns—rather than merely suspend belief as to whether unicorns exist—solely on the basis of there being no good reasons to believe in such creatures. Hence, consistency demands we also disbelieve in God upon realizing all reasons put forth for God's existence are unpersuasive.

In his spare time, Engel practices the ancient art of karate. He also offers a beginners course for students at Northern Illinois University. He often stresses the importance of seriousness, along with concentration and hip thrusting. Students are required to wear proper attire which includes traditional Japanese Gi's, and bare feet.^{[citation needed]}

Professor Engel has been Executive Secretary of The Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals since September, 2002.

Bibliography

• "Tierethik, Tierrechte und moralische Integrität". Interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgemeinschaft Tierethik (Hrsg.). Tierrechte - Eine interdisziplinäre Herausforderung. Erlangen 2007. ISBN 978-3-89131-417-3
• "The Immorality of Eating Meat". Louis P. Pojman (Hrsg.). The Moral Life. New York/Oxford 2000.
• "Internalism, the Gettier Problem, and Metaepistemological Skepticism", Grazer Philosophische Studien 60 (2000).
• "The Possibility of Maximal Greatness Examined: A Critique of Plantinga’s Modal Ontological Argument", Acta Analytica 19 (1997).
• "Coarsening Brand on Events, While Proliferating Davidsonian Events", Grazer Philosophische Studien 47 (1994).
• "The Problem of Other Minds: A Reliable Solution", Acta Analytica 11 (1993).
• "Is Epistemic Luck Compatible with Knowledge?", Southern Journal of Philosophy XXX 2 (1992).
• "Personal and Doxastic Justification in Epistemology", Philosophical Studies 67 (1992).
• "Russellizing Russell: A Reply to His 'A Critique of Lehrer's Coherentism'", Philosophical Studies 66 (1992).
• "Inconsistency: The Coherence Theorist's Nemesis", Grazer Philosophische Studien 40 (1991).
• "Coherentism Reliabilized", Acta Analytica (1986).

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References

1. ^ Faculty – NIU – Department of Philosophy.
2. ^ Mylan Engel, Jr. "The Immorality of Eating Meat," in The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature, Louis P. Pojman, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 856-89

External links

• Faculty web page at the Northern Illinois University
• Video of his lecture "Do Animals Have Rights, and Does It Matter if They Don't?" at the Interdisciplinary Lectures on Animal Rights at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg on the 7th of June 2006
• Northern Star, "Tackling the tough issues: Philosophy professor specializes in ethics; champions animal rights"
• Mylan Engel's posts at animalethics.blogspot.com
• A widely read article by Prof. Engel - "Why YOU Are Committed to the Immorality of Eating Meat” and “The Immorality of Eating Meat”. Also posted here, here and here.

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Name	Engel, Mylan
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Date of birth	1960
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