Kit Fine

Kit Fine (born 26 March 1946) is a British philosopher, currently University Professor and Silver Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at New York University. Prior to joining NYU in 1997, he taught at the University of Edinburgh, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan and UCLA. The author of several books and dozens of articles in international academic journals, he has made notable contributions to the fields of philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language and also has written on ancient philosophy, in particular on Aristotle's account of logic and modality.

Kit Fine
Born (1946-03-26) 26 March 1946
NationalityBritish
EducationB.A. 1967 (philosophy):
University of Oxford
Ph.D. 1969 (philosophy):
University of Warwick
Spouse(s)Anne Fine (divorced)
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic
Doctoral advisor A. N. Prior
Main interests
Philosophical logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language
Notable ideas
Defence of semantic relationism[lower-alpha 1] against semantic intrinsicalism[lower-alpha 2][1]
Websiteas.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/kit-fine.html

He is also a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham, UK.[2] Since 2018 Fine is Visiting Professor at the University of Italian Switzerland.[3]

Education, family and career

After graduating from the University of Oxford (B.A., 1967), Fine received his Ph.D. from the University of Warwick in 1969, under the supervision of A. N. Prior. He then taught at the University of Edinburgh, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan, and UCLA, before moving to New York University.

He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2005[4] and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006.[5] He has held fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies and is a former editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic.

Fine has two daughters from his former marriage to Anne Fine. Anne Fine is an author of children's books; Cordelia Fine is a professor at the University of Melbourne; Ione Fine is a professor at the University of Washington.[6][7]

Philosophical work

In addition to his primary areas of research, he has written papers in ancient philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and economic theory.[8]

Fine has described his general approach to philosophy as follows: "I’m firmly of the opinion that real progress in philosophy can only come from taking common sense seriously. A departure from common sense is usually an indication that a mistake has been made."[9]

Bibliography
  • Worlds, Times, and Selves (with A. N. Prior). University of Massachusetts Press, 1977. ISBN 0-87023-227-4
  • Reasoning With Arbitrary Objects. Blackwell, 1986. ISBN 0-631-13844-7
  • The Limits of Abstraction. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-924618-1
  • Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-927871-7
  • Semantic Relationism. Blackwell, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4051-0844-7

Notes
  1. Semantic relationism is the thesis that the content of utterances is not entirely a matter of their intrinsic semantic features.
  2. Semantic intrinsicalism is the thesis that the content of utterances is fully determined by semantic features intrinsic to them.

References
  1. Kit Fine, Semantic Relationism. Blackwell, 2007.
  2. "Professor Kit Fine - Department of Philosophy - University of Birmingham". Birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  3. "Professors". usi.ch - Master in Philosophy. 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  4. "British Academy | Elections to the Fellowship 2005 - British Academy". Britac.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  5. "Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: New Philosophy Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (Leiter)". Leiterreports.typepad.com. 22 April 2006. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  6. Salter, Jessica (14 September 2010). "World of Anne Fine, author". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  7. "FineLab homepage". Faculty.washington.edu. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  8. "Kit Fine, Faculty of Philosophy | NYU". Philosophy.fas.nyu.edu. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  9. "Metaphysical Kit » 3:AM Magazine". 3ammagazine.com. 23 March 2012. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2015.

Sources
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