Lee McIntyre

Lee McIntyre
BornLee Cameron McIntyre
1962
Portland, Oregon, US
OccupationPhilosopher, author, educator
Education
Period1994–present
GenreNon-fiction, crime fiction, thriller
Website
leemcintyrebooks.com

Lee Cameron McIntyre (born 1962) is an American author, researcher, and academic. He is a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an instructor in ethics at Harvard Extension School. He has published numerous nonfiction book and articles on the philosophy of the social sciences and attempts to undermine science.[1][2] In 2023, he became a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Early life

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McIntyre was born in 1962[3] in Portland, Oregon. He earned a B.A. in philosophy of social science from Wesleyan University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. McIntyre's doctoral dissertation was on the status of law-like explanations in the social sciences.[4][5]

Career

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From 1991 to 1992, McIntyre was a research associate at the Boston University Center for Philosophy and History of Science.[3] In 1992, he was a visiting lecturer at Tufts Experimental College.[3] He was an assistant professor of philosophy at Colgate University from 1993 to 1999.[3] McIntyre was a visiting scholar at the Santa Fe Institute in 1997.[3]

In 2000, McIntyre became a special assistant to the executive dean of the faculty and arts and sciences at Harvard University.[3] In addition, he was an instructor of ethics at the Harvard Extension School[6] and was the executive director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He is a research fellow at the Boston University Center for Philosophy and History of Science.[7]

McIntyre was an associate editor in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In 2023, he became a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.[8]

Body of work

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Nonfiction books

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Many of McIntyre's nonfiction books are concerned with the nature of scientific knowledge generation and validation. These include Explaining Explanation: Essays in the Philosophy of the Special Sciences,[9] Laws and Explanation in the Social Sciences,[4] Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior,[10] and Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age.[11]

In his 2018 book Post-Truth, he explored the environment and "atmosphere" surrounding the concept of post-truth.[12] Carlos Lozada, reviewer for The Washington Post, wrote that Post-Truth "convincingly tracks how intelligent-design proponents and later climate deniers drew from postmodernism to undermine public perceptions of evolution and climate change."[13]

In his 2019 book, The Scientific Attitude: defending science from denial, fraud, and pseudoscience, McIntyre describes scientific thinking and the demarcation problem as a willingness to revise an opinion after discovering new evidence.[2][14] Publishers Weekly said that the book "articulates why the pursuit of scientific truths, even if inevitably flawed and subject to human error, matters."[15] Harriet Hall reviewed the book for Skeptical Inquirer Magazine and wrote that MacIntyre tries to explain science by explaining what it is not.[16] The Scientific Attitude was also reviewed in The Guardian.[17]

MacIntyre was also the co-editor of three anthologies: Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Philosophy of Chemistry, and Philosophy of Chemistry, 2nd edition.[18][19][20]

Essays and articles

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McIntyre is the author of numerous philosophical essays that have appeared in Biology and Philosophy, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Humanist, The New York Times, Perspectives on Science, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Synthese, Teaching Philosophy, Theory and Decision, and The Times Higher Education Supplement. New Statesman published his article, "Why Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Lie... and Why They Are So Good At It" in January 2018.[21] His "How to Reverse the Assault on Science" was published in the Scientific American blog in 2019.[22] McIntyre's article "Flat Earthers and the Rise of Science Denial in America" was reprinted as the cover story of Newsweek on July 14, 2019.[23]

Fiction

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McIntyre also writes suspense fiction. His novel The Sin Eater is a thriller published in 2019.[24]

Presentations

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Michael Shermer invited McIntyre to present on his program Science Salon # 77: The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience.[25] On March 17–20, 2021, McIntyre presented at the first Global Congress on Scientific Thinking and Action; in his presentation, "Science Denialism", he discussed his conversations with flat earth believers, which would become the basis of his book, How to Talk to a Science Denier.[26] He stressed the importance of face-to-face conversations and gaining the trust of the people you are trying to convince.[27][28]

Awards and recognition

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His book Post-Truth was named book of the week by Fareed Zakaria of CNN.[29] It was also the winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles for 2018.[30]

Selected publications

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Book

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Year Title Publisher ISBN
1994 Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science. (co-editor with Michael Martin) MIT Press ISBN 9780262631518
1996 Laws and Explanation in the Social Sciences: Defending a Science of Human Behavior Westview Press ISBN 0813328284
2006 Philosophy of Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline. (co-editor with Davis Baird and Eric Scerri) Springer Publishing ISBN 1402032560
2006 Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior Bradford Books ISBN 0262512548
2012 Explaining Explanation: Essays in the Philosophy of the Special Sciences University Press of America ISBN 0761858695
2014 Philosophy of Chemistry: Growth of a New Discipline, 2nd ed.. (co-editor with Eric Scerri). Springer Publishing ISBN 9401793638
2015 Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age Routledge ISBN 9781138888814
2017 The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Social Science Routledge ISBN 9780367871574
2018 Post-Truth MIT Press ISBN 9780262535045
2019 The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience MIT Press ISBN 0262039834
2019 The Sin Eater Braveship Books ISBN 1640620885
2019 Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction Routledge ISBN 978-1138331518
2021 How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason MIT Press ISBN 0262046105
2021 The Art of Good and Evil Braveship Books ISBN 978-1640621473
2022 A Companion to Public Philosophy Wiley-Blackwell ISBN 978-1119635222
2023 On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy MIT Press ISBN 978-0262546300

Articles

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References

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  1. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (February 16, 2018). Post-Truth. Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 9780262535045. OCLC 1002297524.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b McIntyre, Lee C. (May 7, 2019). The scientific attitude: Defending science from denial, fraud, and pseudoscience. Cambridge, MA. ISBN 9780262039833. OCLC 1050140618.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Mcintyre, Lee C(ameron)". Writers Directory. 2005. Retrieved January 13, 2024 – via Cengage Encyclopedia.com.
  4. ^ a b McIntyre, Lee C. (1996). Laws and explanation in the social sciences: Defending a science of human behavior. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. ISBN 0813328284. OCLC 34281771.
  5. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (June 12, 2017). "Lee McIntyre". Harvard Extension School. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  6. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. "Lee C. McIntyre | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs". www.carnegiecouncil.org. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  7. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. "Lee McIntyre » Center for Philosophy & History of Science | Blog Archive | Boston University". www.bu.edu. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  8. ^ "Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Elects Twelve New CSI Fellows". centerforinquiry.net. Center for Inquiry. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  9. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (2012). Explaining explanation: Essays in the philosophy of the special sciences. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 9780761858690. OCLC 779265260.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (2006). Dark ages: The case for a science of human behavior. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262279512. OCLC 76823283.
  11. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (2015). Respecting truth: Willful ignorance in the Internet age. New York. ISBN 9781138888807. OCLC 896601738.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Evers, Robert Daniel (March 20, 2018). "Is Life in a 'Post-Truth' World Sustainable?". PopMatters. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  13. ^ Lozada, Carlos. "Can truth survive this president? An honest investigation". Washington Post. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  14. ^ Gwilliams, Drew (June 21, 2019). "The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience". Chemistry World. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  15. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  16. ^ Hall, Harriet (2020). "Truth Matters, and the Scientific Attitude Helps Find It". Skeptical Inquirer. 44 (2). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 63–64.
  17. ^ Rose, Steven (August 21, 2019). "The Scientific Attitude by Lee McIntyre review – a defense against denial, fraud, and pseudoscience". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  18. ^ Scerri, Eric R.; McIntyre, Lee C., eds. (November 11, 2014). Philosophy of Chemistry: Growth of a new discipline. Dordrecht. ISBN 9789401793643. OCLC 895161921.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ^ McIntyre, Lee C.; Scerri, Eric (1997). "Editorial Introduction to Philosophy of Chemistry". Synthese. 111 (3): 211–212. doi:10.1023/A:1004983130895. ISSN 0039-7857. JSTOR 20117632.
  20. ^ Martin, Michael; McIntyre, Lee C., eds. (1994). Readings in the philosophy of social science. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0262132966. OCLC 29386457.
  21. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (January 3, 2018). "Why Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin lie... and why they are so good at it". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  22. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (May 22, 2019). "How to Reverse the Assault on Science". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  23. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (May 14, 2019). "Flat Earthers, and the rise of science denial in America | Opinion". Newsweek. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  24. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (2019). The Sin Eater. Los Angeles: Braveship Books. ISBN 978-1640620889.
  25. ^ Shermer, Michael (July 30, 2019). "eSkeptic for July 30, 2019". Skeptic. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  26. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (August 17, 2021). How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262366717. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  27. ^ "Aspen Global Congress on Scientific Thinking & Action". Aspen Institute. Retrieved June 11, 2022.,
  28. ^ Vyse, Stuart (April 2021). "Aspen Global Congress on Scientific Thinking and Action". Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on June 11, 2022. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  29. ^ Zakaria, Fareed (April 15, 2018). "Books of the Week". CNN. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  30. ^ "Post-Truth". MIT Press. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  31. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (1993). "Editorial Introduction: Empiricism in the Philosophy of Social Science". Synthese. 97 (2): 159. doi:10.1007/BF01064112. ISSN 0039-7857. JSTOR 20117836. S2CID 46986370.
  32. ^ McIntyre, Lee C. (1993). "Complexity and Social Scientific Laws". Synthese. 97 (2): 209–227. doi:10.1007/BF01064115. ISSN 0039-7857. JSTOR 20117839. S2CID 46981928.
  33. ^ Scerri, Eric R.; McIntyre, Lee (1997). "The Case for the Philosophy of Chemistry". Synthese. 111 (3): 213–232. doi:10.1023/A:1004949814965. ISSN 0039-7857. JSTOR 20117633. S2CID 1161769.
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