Knowledge and Democracy

10 August 2007

Professor Philip Kitcher

Having informed citizens is important to the health of any democracy. Scholars and journalists frequently suppose that affluent countries have systems of public knowledge on which their citizens can draw. In this lecture, Professor Phillip Kitcher suggests that the functioning of these systems is more problematic that assumed and that there are serious issues about the direction of inquiry, about the certification of knowledge, and about the dissemination of information that arise from our commitments to democracy.

Broad Topics: Arts and Social Sciences

Sub-topics: Policy & Political Science, Society & Culture

Areas: University

Philip Kitcher was born in London. He received his BA from Cambridge University and his PhD from Princeton. He has taught at several American universities, and is currently John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia. He is the author of 10 books on topics ranging from the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of biology, the growth of science, the role of science in society, Wagner’s Ring and Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. He has been President of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) and Editor-in-Chief of Philosophy of Science . A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was also the first recipient of the Prometheus Prize, awarded by the American Philosophical Association for work in expanding the frontiers of Science and Philosophy.

Part of the 2007 Toyota-ANU Public Lecture Series