ABSTRACT
Paul Kurtz has engaged Marxists in debate over the years. He has critiqued their atheism, because it lacked a commitment to humanist values, democracy, and the open society. Kurtz has sought to articulate the ethics of humanism, and demonstrate the possibility of a naturalistic metaphysics. Unlike the atheistic existentialists, who moaned about the absurdity and anguish of life in a godless universe, Kurtz has wasted little time on what might be called a negative theology. While sharing the concern that humanists not be ostracized, Kurtz nonetheless has advocated an ethics of language. One of Kurtz's philosophical heroes is Socrates, who was put on trial 2400 years ago on the trumped-up charges of promoting disbelief in the gods and corrupting the youth of Athens. Kurtz is a modern-day gadfly, going into the marketplace of ideas to promote the cause of critical inquiry. Unlike Socrates, he cannot deny the charge of advocating atheism.
