Department Colloquium: Philip Kitcher

“Progress in the Sciences
and in the Arts"

Abstract: The view that the sciences make progress, while the arts do not, is extremely common.  This lecture will challenge it.  I begin by distinguishing teleological progress from pragmatic progress.   You make pragmatic progress not by coming closer to a goal, but by solving some of the problems of your current state.  Scientific progress should be seen as pragmatic.  When the point is recognized, it becomes evident that scientific progress has social dimensions.  A socially embedded notion of scientific progress then allows for a parallel concept of progress applicable to the arts.

Philip Kitcher is John Dewey Professor at Columbia University.

This talk is co-sponsored by Miscellaneous Metaphysics.