“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.” WayIdeasDifferentPhilosophyPlayStoriesUseTogetherCoursesNovelTeacherTeachingPossibilityTaughtMy FriendsOriginalsVariousTreatedThemeOperaColleaguesCarolsLiterary WorksMusic TeacherWork Play 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.” WayIdeasReadingPerspectiveStandardsPhilosophicalAnalysisVividSuggestingNew 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.” IfsBookIdeasPhilosophyHappensLiteratureViewsStandardsCriticismPhilosophicalLiterary CriticismLiterature 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.” WayIdeasSeemsLiteratureLanguageAttentionPerspectiveMajorsDetailsVariousConnectingTheoreticalRespondingIlluminatingLiterary Works 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.” WayIdeasUseSeemsFictionSourceConceptsAppreciateConnectionsPhilosophicalCriticsIncludingSexualityHelpfulBiographiesNuanceThesisJuxtapositionLiterary Works 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.” WayWantFirstsLooksImportantBookIdeasDonePhilosophyShowsLiteratureArgumentPhilosophicalIntroducingChaptersNew WaysFacets Author:Philip Kitcher
“I'm very suspicious of the idea of a "final theory" in natural science, and the thought of a complete system of ethical rules seems even more dubious.” IdeasSeemsNaturalTheoryFinalsEthicalSuspiciousNatural ScienceDubious Author:Philip Kitcher
“It's a very bad idea for scientific conclusions to be accepted because they fit with the political values of a group of researchers.” IdeasPoliticalValuesGroupsFitAcceptedConclusionResearchersBad Ideas Author:Philip Kitcher
“It's not at all a bad idea for scientific questions to be chosen because a democratic deliberation would identify them as important for people's lives.” PeopleImportantIdeasDemocraticChosenBad IdeasDeliberation Author:Philip Kitcher
