Home / Quotes / Quote by Philip Kitcher

Quote by 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.”

Quote by Philip Kitcher

Author

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. more

You May Also Like

“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