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
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… — 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… — 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
The point of philosophy, as I see it, is to change thinking, and thereby to change the conversation. — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
There are actually two separate issues here. The first is whether (as ancient philosophers and Nietzsche assume) only the privileged elite can… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I rather stumbled into philosophy. When I began my undergraduate career at Cambridge, I studied mathematics. — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
So this is my attempt to give a preliminary - probably far too crude - account of how philosophy by showing can… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Philosophy by showing - including philosophy in literature - does truly valuable work in leading us to new perspectives from which our… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
After two years of undergraduate study, it was clear that I was bored by the regime of problem-solving required by the Cambridge… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Mann's Death in Venice actually contains a snippet of philosophy about the second question, when Aschenbach, collapsed in the plaza, engages in… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Most influential of all is the philosopher Stanley Cavell, and a younger generation of philosophers who have attempted to follow his pioneering… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
If the intuition-mongering were abandoned, would that be the end of philosophy? It would be the end of a certain style of… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I intend Deaths in Venice to contribute both to literary criticism and to philosophy. But it's not "strict philosophy" in the sense… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Sometime during the 1990s, when I was teaching philosophy at UCSD, my friend, colleague, and music teacher, Carol Plantamura, discussed the possibility… — 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
In ethics, we don't make progress by discovering pre-existent truths; we do so by solving problems. — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
“Thomas Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has probably been more widely read—and more widely misinterpreted—than any other book in the… — 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
I would like to undermine the stereotype of "strict philosophy." J.L. Austin remarked that, when philosophy is done well, it's all over… — 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
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
