Philip Kitcher

Philip Kitcher
Kitcher in 2004
Born	Philip Stuart Kitcher (1947-02-20) 20 February 1947 London, England
Spouse	Patricia Kitcher (m. 1971)

Academic background
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge Princeton University
Thesis	Mathematics and Certainty (1974)
Doctoral advisor	Carl Hempel
Influences	Paul Benacerraf Thomas Kuhn Carl G. Hempel John Dewey W. V. Quine Patricia Kitcher
Academic work
Discipline	Philosophy
School or tradition	Analytic philosophy pragmatism
Institutions	Vassar College University of Vermont University of Minnesota University of California, San Diego Columbia University
Doctoral students	Michael Dietrich Peter Godfrey-Smith Kyle Stanford
Main interests	Philosophy of science philosophy of biology bioethics philosophy of mathematics
Notable ideas	The distinction the presuppositional posits and the working posits of a theory heterogeneous reference potentials (selective realism)
Influenced	Peter Godfrey-Smith Patricia Kitcher Kyle Stanford C. Kenneth Waters Michael Weisberg

Philip Stuart Kitcher (born 20 February 1947) is a British philosopher who is the John Dewey Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University. He specialises in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of biology, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of literature, and more recently pragmatism.