Michael Bergmann (philosopher)

Michael Bergmann is an American analytic philosopher teaching in the department of philosophy at Purdue University. His primary interests are epistemology and philosophy of religion. In epistemology, he writes mostly on externalism and, in philosophy of religion, he mostly writes on the epistemology of religious belief and the problem of evil.

Bergmann received a BA and MA degree in philosophy from the University of Waterloo and, in 1997, a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He has taught at Purdue University since 1997. Bergmann is a Christian philosopher.

In his early work, Bergmann wrote about Alvin Plantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism. He raised objections inspired by Thomas Reid's epistemology. In philosophy of religion, Bergmann, along with other philosophers, developed skeptical theism, a position which addresses the evidential argument from evil formulated by William L. Rowe. With Michael Rea and Michael Murray, he edited the book Divine Evil? The Moral Character of the God of Abraham (Oxford University Press, 2010).

In epistemology, Bergmann defends externalism.

• Justification without Awareness: A Defense of Epistemic Externalism, Oxford University Press, 2006.