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
Look at Mann's reading habits, his explicit comments on Nietzsche, and his copy of Birth of Tragedy, and it starts to seem… — 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
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
First, my frame of reference for the Britten opera shifted. I'd always thought of Britten's approach in Death in Venice as another… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
Anxieties about ourselves endure. If our proper study is indeed the study of humankind, then it has seemed-and still seems-to many that… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I'm a pluralist about perspectives on literature. There seem to me to be all sorts of illuminating ways of responding to major… — Philip Kitcher Copy Share Image
I'm very suspicious of the idea of a "final theory" in natural science, and the thought of a complete system of ethical… — 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
