Kit Fine
{{Short description|British philosopher (born 1946)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name = Kit Fine
| image =
| caption=
| education = B.A. 1967 (philosophy):
University of Oxford
Ph.D. 1969 (philosophy):
University of Warwick
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1946|03|26|df=yes}}
| birth_place =England
| doctoral_advisor = A. N. Prior
| influences = A. N. Prior
| influenced =
| nationality = British
| spouse = Anne Fine (divorced)
| website = {{URL|http://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/kit-fine.html}}
| region = Western philosophy
| era = Contemporary philosophy
| school_tradition = Analytic
| main_interests = Philosophical logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language
| notable_ideas = Defense of modal actualism, ontological dependence, grounding and arbitrary objects Defence of semantic relationism{{efn|Semantic relationism is the thesis that the content of utterances is not entirely a matter of their intrinsic semantic features.}} against semantic intrinsicalism{{efn|Semantic intrinsicalism is the thesis that the content of utterances is fully determined by semantic features intrinsic to them.}}Kit Fine, Semantic Relationism. Blackwell, 2007.
}}
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 the philosophy department of NYU in 1997, he taught at the University of Edinburgh, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan and UCLA. The author of multiple books and over 100 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.
He is also a distinguished research professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham, UK.{{cite web|url=http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/philosophy/fine-kit.aspx |title=Professor Kit Fine - Department of Philosophy - University of Birmingham |publisher=Birmingham.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2015-10-19}} Since 2018, Fine is visiting professor at the University of Italian Switzerland.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020|title=Professors|url=https://www.usi.ch/en/education/master/philosophy/professors|access-date=November 11, 2020|website=usi.ch - Master in Philosophy}}
Education, family and career
After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford (B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics , 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 as the Silver Professor and University Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics.
He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2005{{cite web|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2005/index.cfm |title=British Academy | Elections to the Fellowship 2005 - British Academy |publisher=Britac.ac.uk |accessdate=2015-10-19 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203144558/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2005/index.cfm |archivedate= 3 February 2016 }} and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006.{{cite web|url=http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/new_philosophy__1.html |title=Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: New Philosophy Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (Leiter) |publisher=Leiterreports.typepad.com |date=2006-04-22 |accessdate=2015-10-19}} 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 of philosophy at the University of Melbourne; Ione Fine is a professor at the University of Washington.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/7992667/Anne-Fine-author.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918102411/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/7992667/Anne-Fine-author.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 September 2010|title=World of Anne Fine, author|last=Salter|first=Jessica|date=14 September 2010|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London}}{{cite web|url=http://faculty.washington.edu/ionefine/|title=FineLab homepage|date=|publisher=Faculty.washington.edu|accessdate=2015-07-15}}
Philosophical work
The greatest value you can get from studying philosophy is learning how to think for yourself{{Cite web |last=Writer |first=Written by John Chadwick {{!}} SAS Senior |title=Aspiring Philosophers at Rutgers Meet a Superstar in the Field |url=https://sas.rutgers.edu/about/news/students/students-news-detail/aspiring-philosophers-at-rutgers-meet-a-superstar-in-the-field |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=Rutgers University, School of Arts and Sciences |language=en-gb}}
In addition to his primary areas of research, he has written papers in ancient philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and economic theory.{{cite web|url=http://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/kit-fine.html|title=Kit Fine, Faculty of Philosophy | NYU|author=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=Philosophy.fas.nyu.edu|accessdate=2015-10-19}}
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."{{cite web |url=https://www.3-16am.co.uk/articles/metaphysical-kit |title=Metaphysical Kit » 3:AM Magazine |publisher=3ammagazine.com |date=2012-03-23 |accessdate=2022-03-08}}
Awards
In 2013, Fine held the Gödel Lecture, titled Truthmaker semantics.{{Cite web|url=https://aslonline.org/other-information/prizes-and-awards/godel-lecturers/|title=Gödel Lecturers |website=Association for Symbolic Logic}}
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}}
- Vagueness: A Global Approach, Oxford University Press, 2020. {{ISBN|978-0-1975-1495-5}}
"For a full 2023 listing of publications see [https://web.archive.org/web/20231128064411/https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bbm:978-3-031-29415-0/1?pdf=chapter%20toc "Bibliography of Kit Fine"], (back matter from Kit Fine on Truthmakers, Relevance, and Non-classical Logic).{{Cite book |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-031-29415-0 |title=Kit Fine on Truthmakers, Relevance, and Non-classical Logic |date=2023 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-031-29414-3 |editor-last=Faroldi |editor-first=Federico L. G. |series=Outstanding Contributions to Logic |volume=26 |location=Cham |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-29415-0 |editor-last2=Van De Putte |editor-first2=Frederik}}
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100613055357/http://silverdialogues.fas.nyu.edu/page/Kit_Fine Silver Dialogues: Kit Fine]
- [https://nyu.academia.edu/KitFine/CurriculumVitae Kit Fine's CV]
External links
- [http://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/kit-fine.html Kit Fine's web page] at New York University
- [https://iep.utm.edu/fine-k/ KIt Fine (1946-) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
- [https://www.ontology.co/biblio/finek-biblio.htm Annotated Bibliography of Kit Fine's Writings]
- [https://www.ontology.co/biblio/finek-studies.htm Kit Fine. Annotated Bibliography of the Studies on His Philosophy]
- [https://www.3-16am.co.uk/articles/metaphysical-kit Interview with 3AM Magazine]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fine, Kit}}
Category:British philosophers of language
Category:British metaphysicians
Category:Analytic philosophers
Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Alumni of the University of Warwick