Philip Kitcher
John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
Howison Lectures in Philosophy
February 13, 2019 — 4:10 PMAlumni House, Toll Room — UC Berkeley Campus
About the Lecture The view that the sciences make progress, while the arts do not, is extremely common. This lecture will challenge it. Scientific progress has social dimensions. A socially embedded notion of scientific progress then allows for a parallel … Continued
Alumni House, Toll Room - UC Berkeley Campus Berkeley Graduate Lectures [email protected] false MM/DD/YYYYAbout the Lecture
The view that the sciences make progress, while the arts do not, is extremely common. This lecture will challenge it. Scientific progress has social dimensions. A socially embedded notion of scientific progress then allows for a parallel concept of progress applicable to the arts.
About Philip Kitcher
Professor Philip Kitcher specializes in the areas of pragmatism (especially Dewey), science and social issues, naturalistic ethics, and philosophy in literature. At Columbia University he has served as the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy since 2003 and as Professor of Philosophy since 1998. Kitcher is a prolific writer. His recent books include: The Seasons Alter: How to Save our Planet in Six Acts (with Evelyn Fox Keller, 2017), Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism (2014), and Preludes to Pragmatism (2012). He is currently at work on a book, tentatively entitled Progress, Truth, and Values, in which he will attempt to elaborate a form of Pragmatism apt for the twenty-first century. Two subsidiary projects focus on Education and Democracy and Moral Progress. He has served on the Editorial Board and as the Editor in Chief of Philosophy of Science and has lectured around the world for the past three decades.
Philip Kitcher is past president of the American Philosophical Association. In 2002, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded the inaugural Prometheus Prize from the American Philosophical Association in 2006. In 2018 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society and also named an Honorary Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. Since 2013 Kitcher has served on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.