The Frontiers of Knowledge Award goes to Philip Kitcher for his humanistic approach to science
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities category has gone in this seventeenth edition to the Anglo-American philosopher Philip Kitcher, described by the committee as a “humanistic intellectual” whose trailblazing work addresses a broad spectrum of the core questions of our time.
The John Dewey Professor Emeritus at Columbia University has made fundamental contributions of wide-ranging impact in the philosophy of science, particularly the philosophy of biology, which “demonstrate the relevance of the life sciences to the humanities, and vice versa,” in the words of the award citation.
In an academic career spanning over four decades, Professor Kitcher has authored landmark publications on multiple topics ranging from the philosophy of mathematics and the origins of ethics to the role of science in democratic societies, the vital role of education in turning children into citizens and the global environmental crisis, which he considers the greatest challenge now confronting humanity.
The awardee himself defines philosophy as a synthetic endeavor whose goal is “to incorporate all sorts of knowledge from scientific and humanistic disciplines, figuring out how disparate things that seem not to fit together can be welded into a coherent whole” that helps us “progress morally and improve the world we live in.”
Ethics as an amplification of the biological capacity to help others
Kitcher has also reflected on what biology can teach us about human ethics. In his book The Ethical Project (2011), the awardee contends that humans have since ancient times had the ability to detect when a fellow creature is pursuing a particular goal, and to take quite complex steps to help them out.
This responsiveness, which we share with certain primates (such as bonobos and chimpanzees), was fairly limited in early hominids, and Kitcher argues that ethical life arises as a way of amplifying it. “It enables us to be more cooperative and thereby to live in increasingly large societies,” from groups of 40 people about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the first cities about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. “To amplify this responsiveness, we must come to terms with one another, understand who we are, and try to find solutions to the problems that divide us So it’s negotiation, cooperation and mutual understanding that lie at the core of ethics.”
Kitcher proposes three examples of society’s moral progress: the abolition of slavery, the expansion of opportunities for women, and the recognition of same-sex romantic love. “These shifts came about when a few people here and there started to understand the lives of others in a way they hadn’t before. And that became more and more broadcast until it eventually led to changes in social norms and even laws in ways that count as moral and social progress,” he explains. “What complicates ethical life,” he says, “is the difficulty of achieving a broader base of cooperation in a world where so many people suffer and have so many different needs.”
From the Human Genome Project to the role of science in democratic societies
In the mid 1990s, Kitcher examined the ethical implications of the Human Genome Project. The result was his book Science, Truth, and Democracy, in which he says: “without underrating the value of basic research, which I consider immensely important, I argue that the reason it is so important is because, eventually, it yields understandings that enable people to do things that improve human lives.” After all, “Science is all about the benefit it can bring to humanity.”
These reflections led Kitcher to inquire further into science’s role in society, which led him in turn to a vision of democracy “that requires far more than simply people voting from time to time on different issues or even constitutions. What democracy really requires is people working together to try to understand what problems need to be solved and how the knowledge that we are gaining from scientific research can be adapted to solve those problems.”
This idea of cooperation as a fundamental driver of social progress also applies to education. In his book The Main Enterprise of the World: Rethinking Education, Kitcher contends that education must allow children to become citizens who can cooperate with other people in the building of a society; they must be given the opportunity to understand what matters to them and choose the shapes of their own lives.
“People’s lives should be shaped by themselves. And to do that, you need to give them the resources for understanding themselves and understanding their options well enough so that they can find their own path and pursue it with some chances of success.”