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Philip Kitcher

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Philip Kitcher, born on February 20, 1947, is a philosopher, writer, and academic. His research interests are primarily in the fields of philosophy of science, epistemology, and moral philosophy.

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Famous Philip Kitcher Quotes

“In similar fashion, Bellarmine's decree of 1616, banning the teaching of Copernicanism, looks like a calculated political move, designed to secure the interests of the church. Part of the traditional idea of an opposition between the "rational scientist" and the "prejudiced opponents of science" is best captured by noting that some people do not give the highest priority to impersonal cognitive goals but to certain practical ends (sometimes personal, sometimes impersonal) and that their actions are well designed for achieving these ends.”

Reason Science Religion Politics Bias Reasons Practical Reason

Book:The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions

Source: The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions

“Darwin’s point about variation often goes unappreciated today in philosophical discussions, even though it has been uncontroversial for well over a century. Recent discussions of natural kinds, prompted by the seminal ideas of Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam, often assume that one can revive essentialism. Yet if species are natural kinds no such revival is in prospect. Kripke and Putnam largely restricted their discussions to the cases of elements and compounds, and with good reason. For, given the insights of neo-Darwinism, it’s clear that the search for some analogue of the microstructural essences can’t be found. No genetic or karyotypic property will play for species the role that atomic number does for the elements.”

Philosophy Darwinism Essentialism

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Anxieties about ourselves endure. If our proper study is indeed the study of humankind, then it has seemed-and still seems-to many that the study is dangerous. Perhaps we shall find out that we were not what we took ourselves to be. But if the historical development of science has indeed sometimes pricked our vanity, it has not plunged us into an abyss of immorality. Arguably, it has liberated us from misconceptions, and thereby aided us in our moral progress.”

Ifs Stills Sometimes Seems Moral Study Progress Dangerous Development Anxiety Historical Endure Vanity Humankind Abyss Liberated Misconception Immorality

Book:Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism

Source: Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism

“The theory of evolution explains to us what our ancestry has been. It does not explain away our worth. Why should we be afraid to learn more about what we are?”

Should Doe Has Beens Theory Evolution Ancestry Theory Of Evolution

Book:Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism

Source: Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism

“It may be hyperbolic to declare that Shakespeare teaches us more about being human than all the natural scientists combined.”

Humans May Natural Teach Scientist Being Human

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Sometime during the 1990s, when I was teaching philosophy at UCSD, my friend, colleague, and music teacher, Carol Plantamura, discussed the possibility of teaching a course together looking at ways in which various literary works (plays, stories, novels) had been treated as operas, and how different themes emerged in the opera and in its original. One of the pairings we planned to use was Mann's great novella and Britten's opera. Unfortunately, the course was never taught, but the idea remained with me.”

“As I read Mann in German for the first time, the full achievement - both literary and philosophical - of Death in Venice struck me forcefully, so that, when I was invited to give the Schoff Lectures at Columbia, the opportunity to reflect on the contrasts between novella and opera seemed irresistible.”

Giving Firsts Opportunity Achievement First Time Philosophical Opera Contrast Invited Lectures Irresistible Venice Columbia Death In Venice

Author:Philip Kitcher

“First, my frame of reference for the Britten opera shifted. I'd always thought of Britten's approach in Death in Venice as another exploration of the plight of the individual whose aspirations are at odds with those of the surrounding community: his last opera returning to the themes of Peter Grimes. As I read and listened and thought, however, Billy Budd came to seem a more appropriate foil for Death in Venice.”

Firsts Seems Lasts Individual Community Approach Aspiration Theme Appropriate Exploration Opera Peter Odds Venice Plight Foils Frame Of Reference Grime Death In Venice

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I felt I should also contrast Visconti's treatment of the novella - usually damned by Mann fans (who typically respect Britten's more "faithful" adaptation). The Visconti film does many quite wonderful things, although there are good reasons for the condemnation.”

Should Doe Reason Film Felt Wonderful Fans Faithful Treatment Contrast Wonderful Things Adaptation Condemnation

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Presenting Aschenbach as a composer - based on Mahler - leads to some dreadful scenes (especially those in which Aschenbach is berated by his student), and it surely distorts the character Mann created. Yet, we know that Mann's novella was based on a holiday in Venice he took with his wife and brother, and that while he was there he followed the reports in the German newspapers, describing the dying Mahler's progress as he returned from New York to Vienna.”

Knows Character Wife Progress Dying New York Students Brother Scene Newspapers Reports Holiday Composer Describing Venice Presenting Vienna Mahler

Author:Philip Kitcher

“We know that he gave Aschenbach Mahler's first name, and also his facial features. So Visconti picks up on something interesting. That led me to think about ways of developing further the Aschenbach-Mahler connection.”

Thinking Knows Way Firsts Names Interesting Picks Connections Developing Features Facial Something Interesting Mahler Facial Features

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Using the Adagietto of Mahler's Fifth is one of the touches of pure genius in Visconti's film (even though Mahlerians complain very loudly that the piece has been ruined), since it corresponds perfectly to Aschenbach's yearnings and to his circling walks around Venice.”

Has Beens Film Walks Pieces Genius Pure Complaining Yearning Ruined Fifth Venice Mahler

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I found a deep kinship between Mahler's recurrent attempts to confront all sides of life and to affirm himself in the face of his own finitude, and Aschenbach's dedication to persevere in the literary evocation of beauty. Exploring this kinship led me to reflect on many of Mahler's songs and symphonies - and particularly his great masterpiece, Das Lied von der Erde. The end result was a way of reading Mann that I hadn't originally anticipated at all.”

Way Ends Faces Song Reading Found Sides Results Dedication Exploring Masterpiece Lied Symphony Persevere Kinship End Results Finitude Mahler

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I didn't know that Mahler would come to play so large a role, nor that music and literature and philosophy can interinanimate one another in the way I've come to think they do in this case.”

Thinking Knows Way Philosophy Play Literature Roles Cases Mahler

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I intend Deaths in Venice to contribute both to literary criticism and to philosophy. But it's not "strict philosophy" in the sense of arguing for specific theses. As I remark, there's a style of philosophy - present in writers from Plato to Rawls - that invites readers to consider a certain class of phenomena in a new way. In the book, I associate this, in particular, with my good friend, the eminent philosopher of science, Nancy Cartwright, who practices it extremely skilfully.”

“I would like to undermine the stereotype of "strict philosophy." J.L. Austin remarked that, when philosophy is done well, it's all over by the bottom of the first page. I take him to have meant that the real work comes in setting up the problem with which you are dealing, and thus getting your reader to take particular things for granted.”

Firsts Wells Real Done Philosophy Problem Particular Reader Pages Bottom Setting Settings Granted Strict Stereotype Austin Real Work

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Many of the greatest works of philosophy seem to me to be valuable not because of their arguments, but because they offer us perspectives that open up new possibilities. They show us how we might start in different places, and not buy into the assumptions tacitly made on the first pages of the philosophical works that have influenced us.”

Firsts Made Different Philosophy Shows Seems Might Possibility Perspective Offers Pages Argument Philosophical Valuable Assumption Different Place New Possibilities

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Mann was profoundly influenced by two philosophers, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, who returned to the most ancient of all philosophical questions - "How to live?" - and whose writings offered novel perspectives for considering that question (much more perspective-offering than rigorous argument!)”

Writing Two Novel Perspective Argument Philosophical Ancient Philosopher Offering Considering Philosophical Questions

Author:Philip Kitcher

“In working towards ways of reading Mann, so that his own advances in suggesting new perspectives will become more vivid, I do some fairly standard philosophical analysis of ideas in Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.”

Way Ideas Reading Perspective Standards Philosophical Analysis Vivid Suggesting New Perspective

Author:Philip Kitcher

“In elaborating how "philosophy by showing" works, and in defending the idea that literature and music can contribute to philosophical "showing", I am also doing something more standardly philosophical. But I view most of the book as an interweaving of philosophy and literary criticism. If that entails a broadening of a standard idea of philosophy, it's a broadening I'd like to see happen.”

Ifs Book Ideas Philosophy Happens Literature Views Standards Criticism Philosophical Literary Criticism Literature And Music

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I'm a pluralist about perspectives on literature. There seem to me to be all sorts of illuminating ways of responding to major literary works, some of them paying considerable attention to context, others applying various theoretical ideas, yet others focusing on details of language, or linking the work to the author's life, or connecting it with other works.”

Way Ideas Seems Literature Language Attention Perspective Majors Details Various Connecting Theoretical Responding Illuminating Literary Works

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Mann is widely recognized as a master of irony and ambiguity, yet it's remarkable how quickly people foreclose options he carefully leaves open. Lots of readers - including eminent critics - jump to conclusions: that Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy is a central background text, that Aschenbach is an inferior writer, that he's never been attracted by pubescent male beauty before, that he dies of cholera.”

People Dies Masters Reader Birth Tragedy Critics Males Including Backgrounds Conclusion Irony Remarkable Inferiors Ambiguity Cholera Male Beauty

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Look at Mann's reading habits, his explicit comments on Nietzsche, and his copy of Birth of Tragedy, and it starts to seem doubtful that this work of Nietzsche's played much role in the gestation of the novella.”

Looks Seems Reading Roles Birth Habit Tragedy Copies Comment Doubtful Explicit Reading Habits Gestation

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Consider the different narrative styles within the story, and the glee with which the "moralistic narrator" celebrates Aschenbach's fall - maybe, then, this is a hostile verdict and the international fame is warranted after all (given that Mann modeled his protagonist so closely on himself, it would be quite odd if he had intended Aschenbach's literary inferiority to be a fixed part of the interpretation).”

Ifs Different Stories Would Be Fall Given Style Fame International Celebrate Narrative Odd Fixed Interpretation Hostile Inferiority Protagonists Glee Verdict Narrators

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Think about Mann's own daily routine (ascribed to Aschenbach), read the extant diaries and the letters in which he discusses the novella's themes, and it won't be so obvious that the attraction to Tadzio is completely unprecedented; it also won't be obvious that what Aschenbach wants is full sexual contact.”

Thinking Want Letters Obvious Attraction Contact Theme Routine Diaries Unprecedented Daily Routines

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Read Mann's notes, which contain precise accounts of cholera and its symptoms, and observe how careful he is throughout his fiction in getting medical details straight - then you might begin to wonder whether cholera is the only candidate for the cause of Aschenbach's death. What results from this, I think, is a deeper appreciation of Mann's brilliance in keeping so many possibilities in play. The ambiguity is even more artful than people have realized.”

People Thinking Play Might Causes Results Fiction Wonder Possibility Accounts Notes Details Careful Appreciation Deeper Medical Candidates Precise Symptoms Ambiguity Brilliance Cholera

Author:Philip Kitcher

“So my methodological approach is to draw on many different features in highlighting different facets of the novella (and the opera and the film).”

Different Film Approach Draws Features Opera Facets Highlighting

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I use biography, I use literary connections (as with Platen - this seems to me extremely helpful for appreciating the nuances of Mann's and Aschenbach's sexuality), I use philosophical sources (but not in the way many Mann critics do, where the philosophical theses and concepts seem to be counters to be pushed around rather than ideas to be probed), and I use juxtapositions with other literary works (including Mann's other fiction) and with works of music.”

Way Ideas Use Seems Fiction Source Concepts Appreciate Connections Philosophical Critics Including Sexuality Helpful Biographies Nuance Thesis Juxtaposition Literary Works

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Part of my methodological approach is made explicit when I discuss ways in which literature can have philosophical significance. Literature doesn't typically argue - and when it does, it's deadly dull. But literature can supply the frame within which we come to observe and reason, or it can change our frame in highly significant ways. That's one of the achievements I'd claim for Mann, and for Death in Venice.”

Way Doe Made Reason Literature Achievement Approach Claims Philosophical Arguing Significant Dull Significance Venice Explicit Death In Venice

Author:Philip Kitcher

“There are many critics whose work I greatly admire. Even though I diverge from T.J. Reed in several important ways, I've learned greatly from his writings on Mann.”

Way Writing Important Critics Admire I've Learned Reeds

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I'm a fan of Hugh Kenner, Richard Ellman, Lionel Trilling and Frank Kermode. All these people have taught me how to read - but perhaps, above all literary critics, I'm indebted to Wayne Booth (several people have suggested to me that I'm trying to reinvent "ethical criticism").”

People Trying Fans Taught Criticism Critics Ethical Frank Wayne Indebted

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Most influential of all is the philosopher Stanley Cavell, and a younger generation of philosophers who have attempted to follow his pioneering work in thinking about literature philosophically.”

Thinking Literature Generations Philosopher Influential Stanley Younger Generation Pioneering

Author:Philip Kitcher

“One of the things I want to do in the book is to explore how philosophy can be done in literature. I start doing that in the first chapter, by introducing the idea of "philosophy by showing". What literature/philosophy shows is how to look at some important facets of life in a new way, thus changing the frame in which subsequent philosophical argument proceeds.”

Way Want Firsts Looks Important Book Ideas Done Philosophy Shows Literature Argument Philosophical Introducing Chapters New Ways Facets

Author:Philip Kitcher

“When we read a literary work (or, in some instances, listen to music) our imagination is stimulated, we feel various emotions, and we arrive at new judgments. These attitudes are brought into relation with many others, including our standing tendencies to think and feel in particular ways, and we try to fit our psychological capacities and responses together.”

“The result can be quite new - perhaps a tendency to judge that something we've never conceived of is possible, or to feel sympathy for a trait or a type of person whom we've regarded with indifference or even hostility.”

Feels Persons Results Judging Type Tendencies Indifference Traits Hostility

Author:Philip Kitcher

“The amalgam of psychological attitudes we form is the synthetic complex. It may fall apart quite quickly as further reflection or further experience bears on it, and we may revert to our former judgments, feelings and tendencies.”

May Feelings Form Fall Attitude Bears Judgment Reflection Complexes Tendencies Psychological Former Falling Apart Synthetic

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Sometimes, however, the new synthetic complex proves stable, and even serves as the beginning of a much larger cluster of attitudes that displace some we've previously considered to be fixed parts of ourselves.”

Sometimes Attitude Prove Complexes Fixed Stable Synthetic Clusters

Author:Philip Kitcher

“So this is my attempt to give a preliminary - probably far too crude - account of how philosophy by showing can really teach us. The attempts we make to work through problems by reasoning always presuppose starting points, and even the most self-critical philosophers adopt some of those starting points simply by picking them up from the social environments in which they grow up.”

Giving Self Philosophy Problem Social Grows Teach Growing Up Environment Accounts Starting Philosopher Critical Reasoning Crude Starting Point Social Environment

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Philosophy by showing - including philosophy in literature - does truly valuable work in leading us to new perspectives from which our arguments can then begin. It does so by introducing new synthetic complexes, which we then reflect on from various points of view. When the complexes survive and grow, that initial showing has been philosophically decisive.”

Doe Has Beens Philosophy Literature Grows Views Perspective Argument Complexes Including Various Valuable Point Of View Introducing Initials Synthetic New Perspective Introducing New

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Both Proust and Joyce record the ways in which human perspectives can be transformed. In Portrait, Stephen Dedalus is constantly undergoing epiphanies, but their effects are transitory: the new synthetic complex quickly falls apart. Proust's characters, by contrast, often achieve lasting changes of perspective.”

Way Humans Character Fall Records Achieve Effects Perspective Complexes Lasting Transformed Contrast Portraits Falling Apart Epiphany Transitory Joyce Synthetic Proust Lasting Change

Author:Philip Kitcher

“The "little theme" from Vinteuil, heard by Swann as emblematic of his love for Odette, remains a point of reference for him, as the character of that love changes and as the love eventually fades.”

Littles Character Heard Remains Theme Fades His Love

Author:Philip Kitcher

“The moment in which the narrator, reaching for his boots, becomes vividly and lastingly aware of the finality of his grandmother's death is another such moment. It would be interesting to explore Proust's great novel from the perspective of seeing how stable synthetic complexes are formed and modified.”

Moments Would Be Interesting Novel Seeing Perspective Complexes Reaching Grandmother Boots Stable Finality Narrators Synthetic Proust Great Novels

Author:Philip Kitcher

“There are actually two separate issues here. The first is whether (as ancient philosophers and Nietzsche assume) only the privileged elite can live a worthwhile life. The second is whether it's possible to fulfill the roles of both serious artist and upstanding citizen. It seems to me that philosophy can dissect both questions, by delineating clearly the anatomy of the good life and the structural conditions of the roles.”

Firsts Two Philosophy Seems Artist Roles Issues Conditions Serious Citizens Assuming Ancient Philosopher Good Life Worthwhile Elites Privileged Anatomy

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Mann's Death in Venice actually contains a snippet of philosophy about the second question, when Aschenbach, collapsed in the plaza, engages in his quasi-Socratic, anti-Socratic, ruminations.”

Philosophy Venice Socratic Rumination Death In Venice

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I suggest in my own discussion of this episode, Mann invites us to set the attempt to philosophize about his predicament in the context of Aschenbach's life. The literary presentation thus adds to the naked philosophical skeleton.”

My Own Philosophical Add Naked Discussion Invites Episodes Presentation Skeletons Predicaments

Author:Philip Kitcher

“The balance between literature and philosophy in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche is different from that struck in the novella, but, as Mann clearly pointed out in his writings about both thinkers, both modes are present.”

Writing Different Philosophy Literature Balance Thinker

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I suspect that any worthwhile exploration of these deep questions about living requires going beyond abstract discussions to the vivid presentation of possibilities. If readers are to be prompted to serious examination of their lives, anatomy isn't enough. We have to be stimulated to imagine, in some detail, what it would be like to live in particular ways.”

Ifs Way Enough Would Be Imagine Possibility Particular Serious Reader Details Discussion Abstract Suspects Exploration Worthwhile Vivid Examination Presentation Anatomy

Author:Philip Kitcher

“In the end, we learn about the most basic philosophical questions - like "How to live?" - from a broad mixture of sources, including literature and philosophy, history and anthropology. These sources can guide our reflections on our own experiences, as we explore and reconsider. Mann contributed to such explorations in a distinctive way, and I hope my book brings that out.”

Way Book Ends Philosophy Literature Source Reflection Philosophical Including Guides Exploration Broads Mixtures Anthropology Distinctive Philosophical Questions

Author:Philip Kitcher

“I don't think readers of Mann have overlooked the fact that he was a great ironist, but they have tended to see the irony in particular parts of the novella, and to miss it in others.”

Thinking Facts Missing Particular Reader Irony Overlooked

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Even though I want to expand the number of ways in which skilful ironic play happens, I suspect I'm probably guilty of the same shortcoming - and I hope that, one of these days, someone will claim that my book, while it goes in a salutary expansive direction, doesn't go far enough, that there are assumptions I make that show I've missed aspects of Mann's irony and ambiguity.”

Way Want Book Enough Play Shows Happens Numbers Aspect Claims Guilty These Days Irony Assumption Suspects Ironic Ambiguity Shortcomings

Author:Philip Kitcher

About the Author

Born: February 20, 1947
Known for: Author
Quotes: 118

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