Define philosophy as an intellectual project of synthesis, whose objective is to «integrate the dispersed knowledge of all disciplines»
The British-American philosopher Philip Kitcher has been awarded the XVII BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities for his impact as a «humanistic intellectual» through a work that has addressed a wide range of central themes of our time, as highlighted in the jury’s decision that awarded him this prize on Tuesday.
The jury emphasizes that the emeritus holder of the John Dewey Chair at Columbia University has made «fundamental and impactful contributions to the philosophy of science,» particularly to the philosophy of biology, «demonstrating the relevance of life sciences to the humanities, and vice versa.»
Throughout a more than four-decade academic career, Professor Kitcher has published reference works on a wide variety of topics, from the philosophy of mathematics and the origins of ethics to the role of science in democratic societies, the crucial importance of education in transforming children into citizens, and the challenge of the global environmental crisis, through a collection of Socratic dialogues reflecting on climate change, presenting it as the greatest challenge currently facing humanity.
His intellectual curiosity, as emphasized by the jury, has even led him to dissect the ethical and philosophical teachings contained in the works of literary giants such as James Joyce and Thomas Mann, as well as the music of Richard Wagner.
«What distinguishes Kitcher’s work is its immense breadth, encompassing and interrelating the philosophy of science with ethics, politics, education, literature, and the arts, always with the aim of improving society and driving its progress,» says John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Exeter (UK) and president of the jury.
The awardee himself defines philosophy as an intellectual project of synthesis, whose objective is to «integrate the dispersed knowledge of all scientific and humanistic disciplines, bringing together many seemingly disconnected things to forge a coherent whole» that allows for «moral progress and the improvement of the world.»
Kitcher’s journey to philosophy began at the University of Cambridge, where he studied Mathematics, but thanks to a professor’s suggestion, he ended up leaning towards the history and philosophy of science. His initial research during his Ph.D. at Princeton University focused on the history and philosophy of mathematics, until, motivated by his students’ questions, he became interested in biology.
He spent a year studying at Harvard University, at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and later proposed arguments against the theory of sociobiology, which, according to the awardee, was based on the social behavior of insects like ants and extrapolated it to humans. Kitcher argued that «in humans, one must take into account that their environment is much more complex and cultural forces have an effect on human evolution.»
Also in the field of philosophy of science, his book ‘The Advancement of Science’ stands out, in which Kitcher proposed -in the words of his nominator Antonio Diéguez- «demystifying the legend about science, which it considers from a naive and uncritical view to a progressive accumulation of truths achieved through the application of strict methodological canons.»
«Although the criticism of scientism was not new, before it was done from more radical, relativistic, and constructivist approaches, and he goes from realism to pragmatism to defend the objectivity of science, while dismantling too rationalistic or positivist tropes about scientific progress,» he adds in this work, in which Kitcher presented a new model of scientific explanation, based on the ability to unify disparate phenomena. This manual has become a reference in contemporary philosophy of science textbooks.
Kitcher has also explored the lessons that biology can offer in explaining human ethics. In the mid-1990s, Kitcher analyzed the ethical implications of the ‘Human Genome Project’ in a report for the ‘Library of Congress,’ which he eventually turned into the book ‘The Lives to Come’ (1996). However, speaking with congressional advisors, he realized that the political motivation for embarking on the Project was very different from that of the scientific community because, far from the ambition to cure, or at least diagnose, all kinds of diseases, the Congress’s goal was to gain a competitive scientific advantage over Japan, which excelled in the technological field.
Furthermore, he addressed the role of education in ‘The Main Enterprise of the World: Rethinking Education,’ published in 2021, in which the idea of cooperation is once again highlighted as a fundamental element for the advancement of society. He summarizes in three points the importance that education has for this: allowing children to do productive things to help sustain themselves (ultimately to sustain their own lives, not to contribute to global wealth), enabling them to become citizens who can cooperate with others in building a society, and giving them the opportunity to understand what matters to them and choose the shape of their own lives.
The jury’s decision also highlights Professor Kitcher’s work on climate change, articulated in the form of keynote lectures and in a book, as well as analyzing the role of philosophy as a ‘superdiscipline’ to integrate knowledge from all fields, not forgetting the role of literature in understanding the ethics of others.
EXTENSIVE TRAJECTORY
Philip Kitcher (London, UK, 1947) is an emeritus holder of the John Dewey Chair of Philosophy at Columbia University (New York, USA) since 2003, an institution where he was appointed as a professor in 1998.
He obtained his Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from Princeton University (New Jersey, USA) in 1974 and has developed his academic career in the United States, serving as a professor at the University of Minnesota and the University of California in San Diego. He was the president of the American Philosophical Association from 1996 to 1997 and the editor-in-chief of Philosophy of Science from 1994 to 1999.
In 2013, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), a recognition he also received from Utrecht University of Humanities (Netherlands) in 2019. His research interest, which began in the philosophy of mathematics, has expanded throughout his career to cover conceptual and methodological issues in biology, as well as the role of scientific research in democratic societies.