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Paul KurtzSecular Humanist, Eupraxopher, Pragmatist Paul Kurtz is the founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, NY. and also chairman of CFI's federated organizations, including the Committee for Scientific Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism. He founded Prometheus Books and is the editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry Magazine. Kurtz is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. biography /// wikipedia entry /// bibliography /// call for papers |
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Brief Biography
Paul Kurtz was born on 21 December 1925 in Newark, New Jersey. He received his BA from New York University in 1948, then went to Columbia University, where he earned his MA in 1949 and his PhD in philosophy in 1952. The title of his dissertation was “The Problems of Value Theory.” From 1952 to 1959, Kurtz taught at Trinity College in Connecticut. He then was a professor of philosophy at Union College in New York State from 1961 to 1965, and during that time he also was a visiting lecturer at the New School for Social Research. In 1965 Kurtz became professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and taught there until retiring in 1991. He founded a publishing company, Prometheus Books, in 1969 in Amherst, New York. He remains President of Prometheus Books, and has added many other responsibilities during his career. Kurtz is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1992, and had authored or edited over forty books and many hundreds of articles.
Kurtz carries on the legacy of the pragmatic and naturalistic humanism that he acquired while at Columbia. Committed to the superior rationality of scientific inquiry, he has staunchly defended science and reason against all forms of superstition, mythology, and fraudulent deception. Kurtz is founder and chair of the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, New York, and he leads many associated organizations, including the Committee for Scientific Inquiry (founded in 1976 as Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) and the Council for Secular Humanism (founded in 1980 as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism), and he also is the editor-in-chief of the magazine Free Inquiry. He was co-President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and is a Humanist Laureate and President of the International Academy of Humanism.
Kurtz has argued for a comprehensive philosophy of secular humanism in his many books. Long involved with the American Humanist Association, he contributed to the composition of the Humanist Manifesto II with Edwin Wilson in 1973. Humanist principles such as grounding morality in human happiness and not supernatural revelation, and demanding respect for individual liberty, support an active democratic culture that encourages free participation by all citizens. Humanistic ethics in Kurtz’s hands takes a broadly utilitarian concern for the long-term welfare of all people, but restricts this utilitarianism by appeal to basic liberty rights and adds a communitarian respect for social groups.
Several of his books present his philosophical views of science, naturalism, ethical theory and political theory. In the areas of philosophy of science and naturalism, central works are The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal (1986), Philosophical Essays in Pragmatic Naturalism (1991), The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge (1992), and Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm (2001). Recent books develop his humanistic ethics: Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism (1987), Eupraxophy: Living without Religion (1989), The Courage to Become: The Virtues of Humanism (1997), and Affirmations: Joyful and Creative Exuberance (2004).
Books about Paul Kurtz include Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz (Transaction, 1994), and Promethean Love: Paul Kurtz and the Humanistic Perspective on Love (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006).
Paul Kurtz's Books
This is a selected list of Paul Kurtz's major writings. Please consult Media-graphy: A Bibliography of the Works of Paul Kurtz, Fifty-One Years: 1952-2003 (Center for Inquiry, 2004).
Affirmations: Joyful and Creative Exuberance, Revised Edition (Prometheus Books, 2005).
Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 2001).
Humanist Manifesto 2000 (Prometheus Books, 2000).
Embracing the Power of Humanism (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).
The Courage to Become: The Virtues of Humanism (Praeger/Greenwood, 1997).
The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge (Prometheus, 1992).
Philosophical Essays in Pragmatic Naturalism (Prometheus, 1991).
Living Without Religion (Prometheus, 1988).
Building a World Community (Prometheus, 1988).
Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism (Prometheus, 1987).
The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal (Prometheus, 1986).
In Defense of Secular Humanism (Prometheus, 1983).
A Secular Humanist Declaration (Prometheus, 1980).
Exuberance: An Affirmative Philosophy of Life (Prometheus, 1977).
The Fullness of Life (Horizon Books and Prometheus, 1974).
The Humanist Alternative (Pemberton Books and Prometheus, 1973).
Decision and the Condition of Man (University of Washington, 1965).
Media and Lecture Appearances
Paul Kurtz is the author or editor of 45 books and over 800 articles and reviews. Newspaper stories and interviews with him have appeared in the New York Times, Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine, Washington Post, Associated Press, Panorama (Italy), Readers Digest, Los Angeles Times, US News & World Report, Buffalo News, TV Guide, Chicago Tribune, TWA Ambassador, American Way (American Airlines), Washington Times, Newsday, Newsweek, Le Monde, Publishers Weekly, Christianity Today, Toronto Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Hartford Courant, Pravda, Investia, Atlanta Constitution, Science News, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Times of India, San Diego News, Philosophy Now, et al.
He has appeared on many major TV and radio programs in North America and worldwide, including National Public Radio, HBO, CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, Meet the Press (Los Angeles), Voice of America, Mike Wallace, Michael Jackson, Phil Donohue, Associated Press Radio, Dateline (ABC), BBC, CBC (Canada), AM Canada, ABC (Australian Radio), Smithsonian Radio, Science Friday (NPR), Milt Rosenberg (Chicago), Merv Griffith, Paul Harvey, Barry Farber Show, MacNeil/Lehrer Report, Larry King Live, The 700 Club, Sally Jesse Raphael, Unsolved Mysteries, Oprah Winfrey, RAI TV (Italy), Brazilean, Korean, Russian, French, German TV, et al.
Paul Kurtz has lectured widely in North America and throughout the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, University College (London), University of London, La Sorbonne, University of Heidelberg, Free University of Brussels, University of Warsaw, Cleveland State University, University of Iowa, Franklin & Marshall College, Sydney (Australia), Beijing and Shanghai Universities, Moscow State University, St. Petersburg University, Utrecht University, Keele University, Trinity College (Dublin), Williams College, Brock University, University of Toronto, York University, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, University of Chicago, Rutgers, UCLA, University of Southern California, University of California (Irvine, San Diego, Berkeley), San Francisco State, City University of New York, University of Nevada, Columbia, New York University, American University, George Washington University, Richmond University, Temple University, The Franklin Institute, The Smithsonian, University of Illinois, University of Colorado, University of Kansas, et al.
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