Timothy J. Madigan (born 1962) is an American
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, author and editor, and a noted humanist. He is particularly notable for having been the Editor of
Free Inquiry, a leading journal of secular humanist discussion and commentary.
Madigan graduated in philosophy from the
State University of New York at Buffalo in 1984, later gaining an MA and a PhD from the same institution. His PhD supervisor was
Peter Hare. Madigan's PhD was on the 19th century mathematician and philosopher
William Kingdon Clifford
William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 18453 March 1879) was an English mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his ...
, and he wrote a 2009 book about Clifford.
From the mid-1980s Madigan was employed by the journal
Free Inquiry. He became its Executive Editor (1987–1996) and then Editor (1996-1998). He left to become the Editorial Director of the University of Rochester Press, in
Rochester, New York. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at
St John Fisher College, also in Rochester, NY. Madigan is also one of the US Editors of
Philosophy Now magazine.
As Secular Humanist Mentor of the
Council for Secular Humanism, Madigan was active in helping establish local secular humanist societies throughout the United States. Since 1993 he has been a member of the board of directors of the
Bertrand Russell Society
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...
. In 2015 he was elected President of the
Bertrand Russell Society
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...
.
Madigan is a frequent speaker and panel chair at academic conferences on a wide range of humanities subjects. His own advice on chairing conference sessions has been published in ''Academe'', the journal of the
American Association of University Professors.
Books
* ''The Question of Humanism'' with David Goicoechea and John Luik (1991)
* ''The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays by William Kingdon Clifford'' edited by Timothy J. Madigan (1999)
* ''Promethean Love'', edited by Timothy J. Madigan, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006.
* ''God and the Philosophers'', by Paul Edwards edited by Timothy J. Madigan, Prometheus Books, 2008.
* ''W.K. Clifford and "The Ethics of Belief"'', by Timothy J. Madigan, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009.
* ''Lucretius: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance'' ed by David B. Suits and Timothy J. Madigan, RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press 2011
* ''Beyond Sustainability'', (co-written with Tim Delaney), McFarland Publishing, 2014.
* ''The Sociology of Sports'', 2nd Edition (co-written with Tim Delaney), McFarland Publishing, 2015.
* ''Lessons Learned from Popular Culture'', (co-written with Tim Delaney), SUNY Press, 2016.
* ''Bertrand Russell, Public Intellectual'', (co-edited with Peter Stone), Tiger Bark Press, 2016.
* ''Friendship and Happiness and the Connection Between Them'', (co-written with Tim Delaney), McFarland Publishing, 2017.
References
External links
Homepage at St John Fisher College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madigan, Timothy
1962 births
Living people
21st-century American philosophers
20th-century American philosophers
St. John Fisher University