James Coley, long time host on WCOM, had a heart attack at his desk at UNC and died earlier this week. The NC Ethical Humanist Society held a memorial for him on Sunday, July 22 2018.
PER LISTENER REQUESTS, WE HAVE AVAILABLE A RECENT SHOW MR. COLEY DID WITH CONGRESSMAN DAVID PRICE, LISTEN HERE:
SUMMARY OF MY PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS
I am a metaphysical naturalist, empiricist and scientific realist, with an epistemology that blends elements of foundationalism and coherentism. Circular chains of epistemic justification are allowed as long as they pass through a quasi-foundation of beliefs there is no good reason to doubt.
My view on free will I call firm determinism. There are conflicting ordinary language concepts of free will; my Control Theory of Freedom offers autonomous control as a successor. There are variations of the concept, and most but not all of them are incompatible with determinism.
In ethics, I have a prescriptivist view. There are no objective values, but that is no reason for me not to act on my Humanist value system. I believe in reason, but it is only instrumental with respect to a value system.
I am an atheist. There is no purpose for human life ordained by the Universe, evolution or anything else. We give life significance and purpose through our values, and most importantly our actions. The way to find meaning in life is to find meaningful things to do — and then do them