Many of the greatest works of philosophy seem to me to be valuable not because of their arguments, but because they offer… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
As I read Mann in German for the first time, the full achievement - both literary and philosophical - of Death in… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Mann was profoundly influenced by two philosophers, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, who returned to the most ancient of all philosophical questions - "How… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I use biography, I use literary connections (as with Platen - this seems to me extremely helpful for appreciating the nuances of… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
In working towards ways of reading Mann, so that his own advances in suggesting new perspectives will become more vivid, I do… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Part of my methodological approach is made explicit when I discuss ways in which literature can have philosophical significance. Literature doesn't typically… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Both Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are inexhaustible. They are celebrations of the ordinary, compelling reactions to philosophical elitism about "the good life".… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I was occupied by a range of questions, often different from those fashionable in the professional philosophy of the past half century,… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
In the end, we learn about the most basic philosophical questions - like "How to live?" - from a broad mixture of… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
One of the things I want to do in the book is to explore how philosophy can be done in literature. I… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I suggest in my own discussion of this episode, Mann invites us to set the attempt to philosophize about his predicament in… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
In elaborating how "philosophy by showing" works, and in defending the idea that literature and music can contribute to philosophical "showing", I… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I have enormous respect for Derek Parfit, although he seems to me bound within an unfortunate philosophical tradition - rather like the… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I'm a fan of Hugh Kenner, Richard Ellman, Lionel Trilling and Frank Kermode. All these people have taught me how to read - but… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Refined religion is aimed at realizing ethical values, including the fostering of human lives and human communities. — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Many of the greatest works of philosophy seem to me to be valuable not because of their arguments, but because they offer us perspectives… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
As I read Mann in German for the first time, the full achievement - both literary and philosophical - of Death in Venice struck… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
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… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
My ethical naturalism sees us as facing the predicament of being social animals without evolved adaptations that make social life easy. The fundamental problem… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
So my methodological approach is to draw on many different features in highlighting different facets of the novella (and the opera and the film). — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
In my view, we ought to replace the notion of analytic philosophy by that of synthetic philosophy. — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Philosophers ought to aspire to know lots of different things and to forge useful synthetic perspectives. — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
The balance between literature and philosophy in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche is different from that struck in the novella, but, as Mann clearly pointed out… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I don't think that anything of any consequence is known a priori: all our knowledge is built up by modifying the lore passed on… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Because the problems are objective features of the human situation - social animals without the capacities for making social life come easily - ethics… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
