Re: The logic of atheism

Christopher A. Lee wrote:
"Paul Holbach" <paulholbachDELETETHENAME@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well, that's the core of materialism:

"Basically the view that everything is made of matter."

["Materialism". In T. Honderich (Ed.), /The Oxford companion to
philosophy/. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995.]

Except of course that most atheists aren't a priori materialists - any
materialism is consequential and incidental, not philosophical.

Your are right insofar as atheism does not imply materialism.

Anybody who doesn't affirm the negation of what the theists affirm is
not an atheist -- for obvious reasons.

All it takes to be atheist, is not being theist.

Atheism implies nontheism, and so not being a theist is a necessary
condition of being an atheist. Not being a theist alone may also be a
sufficient condition of being a negative/weak atheist; and being a
negative/weak atheist implies being an atheist (just as being a tall
man implies being a man).
In my mind "true" atheism is associated with what is called
"positive/strong atheism". But I concede to you that in other minds
there may be other associations; and so I need to qualify my statement
above:

"Anybody who doesn't affirm the negation of what the theists affirm is
not a [positive/strong] atheist -- for obvious reasons."

Regards
PH

P.S.:
In my view atheism should not be primarily regarded as an
epistemological standpoint referring to subjective states of belief but
as an ontological standpoint referring to what is (taken to be)
objectively the case in the world. I think it's useful here to take a
glance at the so-called "doxastic logic", i.e. the logic of belief, in
order to clear up what the possible scope of the atheists' negation of
the theistic beliefs is:

("p" stands for some statement, and "(B_x)p" means "It is believed by x
that p", "t" refers to the theists and "a" to the atheists.)

-- It is believed by the theists that p: (B_t)p

The atheists have two options with regard to the negation of the above
sentence form:

(1) It is not the case that it is believed by the atheists that p:
~(B_a)p

(2) It is believed by the atheists that it is not the case that p:
(B_a)~p

In doxastic logic there is in fact a logical difference between (1) and
(2) such that they can't be deemed equivalent:

-- ~(~(B_a)p <-> (B_a)~p)

-- It is not the case that "It is not the case that it is believed by
the atheists that p" is true if and only if "It is believed by the
atheists that it is not the case that p" is true.

It is true that positive atheism implies negative atheism:

-- (B_a)~p -> ~(B_a)p

(Believing that not-p implies not believing that p.)

But it is not true that negative atheism implies positive atheism:

-- ~(~(B_a)p -> (B_a)~p)

(Not believing that p does not imply believing that not-p.)

(1) characterizes the (epistemological) standpoint of negative/weak
atheism:

If a theist believes that p, then somebody who does not believe that p
is (at least) a negative/weak atheist.

(For example, if a theist believes that God exists, then somebody who
does not believe that God exists is (at least) a negative/weak
atheist.)

(2) characterizes the (ontological) standpoint of positive/strong
atheism:

If a theist believes that p, then somebody who believes that not-p is a
positive/strong atheist.

(For example, if a theist believes that God exists, then somebody who
believes that God does not exist is a positive/strong atheist.)

As far as I'm concerned, I, as already said, am in favour of the
ontological view of atheism, that is, an atheist should not just be a
"believe-nothing-of-what-the-theists-believe" but somebody who
positively believes that there is no transcendent, self-conscious
divine person that has intentionally created the universe.

.

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