Christopher Hitchens | |
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![]() Hitchens in 2007 | |
Born | Christopher Eric Hitchens 13 April 1949 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England |
Died | 15 December 2011 Houston, Texas, US | (aged 62)
Education | Balliol College, Oxford (BA) |
Spouses |
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Children | 3 |
Relatives |
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Era | Contemporary |
Notable ideas | Hitchens's razor |
Citizenship |
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Political party | Labour (1965–1967) International Socialists (1967–1971) |
Signature | |
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Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author, journalist, and educator.[2][3] Author of 18 books on faith, culture, politics and literature, he was born and educated in Britain, graduating in the 1970s from Oxford with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In the early 1980s, he emigrated to the United States and wrote for The Nation and Vanity Fair. Known as "one of the 'four horsemen'" (along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett) of New Atheism, he gained prominence as a columnist and speaker. His epistemological razor, which states that "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence", is still of mark in philosophy and law.[4][5]
Hitchens's political views evolved greatly throughout his life.[6] Originally describing himself as a democratic socialist,[7] he was a member of various socialist organisations in his early life, including the Trotskyist International Socialists.[8] He was critical of aspects of American foreign policy, including its involvement in Vietnam, Chile and East Timor. However, he also supported the United States in the Kosovo War. Hitchens emphasised the centrality of the American Revolution and Constitution to his political philosophy.[9] Hitchens held complex views on abortion; being ethically opposed to it in most instances, and believing that a fetus was entitled to personhood, while holding ambiguous, changing views on its legality.[10] He supported gun rights and supported same-sex marriage, while opposing the war on drugs.[11][12] Beginning in the 1990s, and particularly after 9/11, his politics were widely viewed as drifting to the right, but Hitchens objected to being called conservative.[6][13][14] During the 2000s, he argued for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, endorsed the re-election campaign of US President George W. Bush in 2004, and viewed Islamism as the principal threat to the Western world.[15][16]
Hitchens described himself as an anti-theist and saw all religions as false, harmful, and authoritarian.[17] He endorsed free expression, scientific scepticism, and separation of church and state, arguing science and philosophy are superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilisation.[18] Hitchens notably wrote critical biographies of Catholic nun Mother Teresa in The Missionary Position, President Bill Clinton in No One Left To Lie To, and American diplomat Henry Kissinger in The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Hitchens died from complications related to oesophageal cancer in December 2011, at the age of 62.[19]
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
After the September 11 attacks of 2001, Hitchens was widely perceived as having migrated to the right on the political spectrum, actively campaigning for the invasion of Iraq and deposal of Saddam Hussein and endorsing George W. Bush in the 2004 US presidential election. Hitchens dropped his column for The Nation in 2002. He maintained that the shifts in his political allegiances were motivated by the right's stronger and more-interventionist stance against what he deemed "fascism with an Islamic face."
..., I asked him if he'd be up for writing a column on gun control. He told me that he'd love to. But he wanted to let me know up front that he was opposed to controls.
I am [not a] part of the generalised agnosticism of our culture. I am not even an atheist so much as I am an anti-theist... all religions are versions of the same untruth... the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful... cradle-to-grave divine supervision; a permanent surveillance and monitoring... I am [not] privy to the secrets of the universe or its creator... even [the best of the theisms] are complicit in this quiet and irrational authoritarianism.