“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.” MayFeelingsFormFallAttitudeBearsJudgmentReflectionComplexesTendenciesPsychologicalFormerFalling ApartSynthetic 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.” SometimesAttitudeProveComplexesFixedStableSyntheticClusters 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.” DoeHas BeensPhilosophyLiteratureGrowsViewsPerspectiveArgumentComplexesIncludingVariousValuablePoint Of ViewIntroducingInitialsSyntheticNew PerspectiveIntroducing 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.” WayHumansCharacterFallRecordsAchieveEffectsPerspectiveComplexesLastingTransformedContrastPortraitsFalling ApartEpiphanyTransitoryJoyceSyntheticProustLasting Change 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.” MomentsWould BeInterestingNovelSeeingPerspectiveComplexesReachingGrandmotherBootsStableFinalityNarratorsSyntheticProustGreat Novels Author:Philip Kitcher
“Mann's sexuality and his attitudes towards it are extremely complex - and the complexities are inherited in the figure of Aschenbach. Mann had lived through a series of (almost certainly unconsummated) relationships with young men.” MenYoungAttitudeFiguresSeriesComplexesSexualityYoung ManComplexity Author:Philip Kitcher
“The classical allusions and the Platonic disquisitions on beauty are no longer a form of cover, but integral to Aschenbach's complex sexuality. Moreover, the wandering around Venice in pursuit of Tadzio isn't a prelude to some sexual contact for which Aschenbach is yearning.” FormComplexesSexualityPursuitContactWanderYearningVeniceAllusionPlatonicPreludeWandering Around Author:Philip Kitcher
