Analytic Overview

A reader of Brian Leiter’s blog wrote to get advice

on how best to go about learning the basics of analytical philsophy. I was a philosophy minor in college, from which I graduated two years ago, but never got a chance to take many classes in logic and dabbled mainly in older continental thinkers and simple applied ethics. I’m not a huge math person and I have to admit that some of the more technical aspects of the early analytical thinkers turn me off, but I’d like to get a sufficient background in the subject so that I might read later thinkers such as Quine, Putnam, and Davidson, who do seem to have some very interesting things to say. I really would value your advice!

For those who might be in a similar situation, or for those who are merely curious, the readers’ suggestions are available here.

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Discussion of GRE Verbal Scores @ Leiter Reports

I found the following discussion of GRE Verbal scores for Philosophy MA/PhD applicants to be really interesting. (I’m glad that I’m past this phase of my career!) The general topic of discussion is that which is found in the URL and post title: “Are some schools using undisclosed GRE cut-offs in admissions decisions?” The undergraduate who submitted the post argues that if schools are using such thresholds to eliminate sets of applicants, then they should be forthright about it and save applicants money and time. Insightful discussions ensue.

Check it out at Leiter Reports here.

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Experimental Philosophy of Free Will: Bootcamp and Workshop

Yale will be hosting a bootcamp and workshop on Experimental Philosophy of Free Will for graduate students and faculty:

The Experimental Philosophy of Free Will Workshop and Boot Camp is an opportunity for philosophers to gain the skills they need to conduct cutting-edge research in the experimental philosophy of free will.

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The Grad School Cafe

From In Socrates Wake:

One of my graduated advisees is presently in the middle of waiting for responses to all of his applications for entry into Ph.D. programs for philosophy. He recently brought my attention to a “Grad School Admissions Wiki” that helps students to learn when others have been admitted to certain schools (or rejected, or wait-listed). Basically, it works like the “Job Market Wiki” (for philosophy) that I think is out there too (I think I saw it on Leiter’s page at some point, but I can’t remember). The Grad School Wiki basically tries to get hopeful applicants information faster than they typically tend to get it from the schools themselves. It also seems to function as a support system, and also has forums dealing with many questions regarding the whole process. Go below the fold for more information on it.

The address for the forum is here:

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Another Reason to Study Philosophy

According to one interpretation of recent testing data, “[p]hilosophers are the smartest humanists, physicists the smartest scientists, economists the smartest social scientists.” (HT: Leiter Reports) This may help explain why, as noted earlier, philosophy majors have higher mid-career salaries than students who major in advertising, biology, business management, criminal justice, education, human resources, medical technology, and nursing.

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Scholarships at The University of Western Ontario

The Rotman Institute of Philosophy (in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario) is offering two $10,000 entrance scholarships to incoming PhD students. I think that this is a great opportunity that all of the readers of the blog ought to look into and consider seriously. As a memeber of the Rotman Institute, I would be happy to answer any questions you all might have regarding the scholarship, the Rotman Institute, and the University of Western Ontario.

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Something to Consider When Applying to Graduate Programs in the Humanities

The article I’ve posted below circulated among the grad students at my department last semester and I thought that you all might want to read it prior to deciding to apply to grad school. Prior attending grad school, a former professor gave me some not-so-nice information about the reality of life as a grad student and of an aspiring academic. I found this information very useful in evaluating my own reasons for applying to graduate programs in philosophy. While I cannot do for any of you what she did for me, I would like to share with all of you an article from the journal of higher education with (broadly speaking) the same aim. However,  I will warn the readers of this post that the content of this article is bleak, significantly bleaker than what I was told before I applied.  The take home message should NOT be don’t go to grad school, rather it should encourage readers to seriously consider why they want to attend grad school. Is it because you would like to be a professor, make some money, publish and change the world? Or is simply because grinding poverty might be worth it to have a chance to study and discuss philosophy at a significantly higher level? Both of these questions are clearly exaggerations, but I think that they give you the gist of the two options.

Here is one. I’ll post some others as comments, if anyone wants to read them. Before ending this brief post I just want to say again that this is not meant to dissuade anyone from going to grad school, but to instead provide students with some serious concerns that one ought to consider so that once a decision is made, it will be as informed as possible (if your professors have not done this already.)  Personally, I don’t agree with about have of what this author says but it is still worth reading.

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Update on UF’s Graduate Program

Gene Witmer, Chair of the Department at the University of Florida, offers the following update on their graduate program. (HT: Leiter Reports)

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Grad School Offers

Congratulations to those who have been accepted for graduate studies!

UNF’s Department of Philosophy would particularly like to congratulate a number of our own students on their accomplishments:

• Quincy Faircloth has accepted an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He also had an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.

• Amy Wuest has accepted an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.

• Linda Harris has accepted an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida.

• Macon Jones has received offers from the J.D. programs at Southern Illinois University and the University of Indiana.

• Josh Jarvis was admitted to the M.Div. program at Reformed Theological Seminary.

These are welcome additions to a (growing) list of accomplishments by our students in recent years, including, e.g.,

• Andrea Pitts (UNF – B.A., 2006) accepting an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Florida, and

• Jared Warren (UNF – B.A. & B.S., 2008) accepting an offer from the Ph.D. program in the Department of Philosophy at NYU.

We welcome our readers — especially any UNF students whose names and news I’ve omitted — to share their good news concerning grad school. The format of  comments should be as follows: [Name] has accepted an offer from the [degree] program in the Department of [name] at the University of [name]. Followed by, when applicable:  S/he also had an offer from the [degree] program in the Department of [name] at the University of [name].

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Grad School Applications Deadline

The MA program in Practical Philosophy and Applied Ethics at the University of North Florida continues to accept applications for its Fall 2009 class. Various forms of aid and support are available for qualified students, including teaching assistantships, research assistantships, university scholarships, and the Ethics Center fellowship. Applicants interested in being considered for a teaching assistantship should apply by March 1. Otherwise, applications will be accepted until April 15.

REMINDER: Moved up from February 12th

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How Can Non-Elite PhD Programs Help Their Students?

Should they encourage them to publish?

(HT: Leiter)

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“The Obama Effect”

Readers who have followed recent philosophical discussions on implicit bias and schema disruption (here, for example) may be interested in this study reported at The Situationist attempting to test whether having an African-American president has changed the way African-American students perform on tests, and whether it has enhanced their ability to overcome stereotype threats that decrease academic performance.

The inspiring role model that Mr. Obama projected helped blacks overcome anxieties about racial stereotypes that had been shown, in earlier research, to lower the test-taking proficiency of African-Americans, the researchers conclude in a report summarizing their results.

“Obama is obviously inspirational, but we wondered whether he would contribute to an improvement in something as important as black test-taking,” said Ray Friedman, a management professor at Vanderbilt University, one of the study’s three authors. “We were skeptical that we would find any effect, but our results surprised us.”

Readers who haven’t followed the discussions on implicit bias and schema disruption or who aren’t familiar with the relevant psychological literature may wish to follow the links at the end of the entry at The Situationist.

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Anonymous Application Dossiers

There’s a very interesting discussion at PEA Soup about the possibility of anonymous job applications to avoid, among other things, potential pedigree bias.

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Bad Job Market News

The scoop on the humanities at Inside Higher Ed.

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Academeology: A Book by Female Science Professor

An academic blogger, Female Science Professor, began blogging anonymously in 2006. Her blog postings have been collected in a book which might interest our readers who like reading and thinking about science, intersections of philosophy and science, the production of scientific knowledge and the workings of academia. Female Science Professor is, well, a female scientist who, as a female, is a member of an underrepresented group in her specialization. Here’s a review of her book, Academeology:

Pseudonymous blogger Female Science Professor (FSP) first introduced herself in May 2006: “I do not look my age, I do not look like a professor, I do not look like a scientist. My colleagues are, with a few exceptions, very kind and polite to me, and some (many? most?) even like me … but they do not take me seriously.”

That post set the tone for what has become a collection of more than 500 short essays describing her experiences as a scientist, a professor and one of the few women working in her field of science. […] FSP’s blog has steadily gained popularity, with her clear writing style, candid revelations and often humorous musings. The blog’s comment section allows her readers to share their own academic experiences.

(HT: Feminist Philosophers)

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More Philosophy PhD Advice

Is it wise or unwise to apply to the same program twice? Find out here.

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Thinking about Implicit Bias

The Feminist Philosophers have begun a series of posts on implicit bias and hiring practices. As readers may remember from discussions last year, women are only about twenty percent of philosophers, making philosophy among the worst in the humanities with regard to sex parity. Statistics are similarly dismal for racial and ethnic minorities.

There have been many important discussions about this in the philosophy blogging world over the past year, and one of the recurring themes is that of implicit biases and unconscious schemas. The Feminist Philosophers provide resources about implicit biases and strategies for overcoming them. Although none of the classic experiments on implicit bias (for example, gathering data from job application callbacks) have been re-run on the philosopher population, the Feminist Philosophers suggest it is reasonable to assume philosophers are not immune to implicit bias, which means, like we find elsewhere, implicit bias likely affects hiring.

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General Advice about Applying to Philosophy PhD Programs

At Leiter Reports.

UPDATE: And more at The Splintered Mind.

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Standards of Philosophical Excellence

A reader recently submitted the following question for other FSPB readers:

Recent discussion at the Splintered Mind about PhD application and admittance made me go over a question that’s been on my mind for a while. I have been a student at one fairly prestigious regional university and one less prestigious university. As a student, I have noticed that many professors ‘teach to the type’ of student at the school, as it were. The reasons for doing so are not unfounded, of course, but it does seem that in some cases, quality students with high expectations and professional goals may be disadvantaged if they are grouped into the ‘type’ of student no one expects to go on to good PhD programs.

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No Elimination of UF’s Ph.D. … Yet

This observation just in from Sabrina Jamil:

Not sure how many are aware, but a revised version of the proposal has passed.

Although the Ph.D. program was not eliminated, admissions to the program are frozen until at least 2012. There is a 60 day window for additional changes to be made. More from the Gainesville Sun here:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080514/NEWS/383568383/1002/NEWS/UF_trustees_approve_budget_cuts_with_revisions_

This is disappointing, though not a total loss. From the outside, I’m not sure how this compromising compromise was achieved, but I suppose it is better than a total elimination of the program.

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UF President Machen calls for a new university budget that eliminates the PhD program in philosophy

President Bernie Machen has proposed that UF’s Ph.D program in philosophy be eliminated (along with Ph.D program in Romance Languages and Literatures with concentration in French and Ph.D. program in German) to help balance the university’s budget. Here is the same information presented in .pdf format; the relevant information is on page 7.

UPDATE (Vitz, 05/06/08): Professor Jamil (Miami Dade College) has created a petition so that we can gather signatures to send to President Machen at the University of Florida.

UPDATE (Vitz, 05/09/08): The petition has received, roughly, 1300 signatures in three days.

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In Praise of Academic Effort

With the Spring semester right around the corner, I thought this article would be appropriate. The article is geared toward teachers and parents, but I think it’s helpful for students to think about what theory of intelligence they hold and how it might affect their academic performance:

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

The result plays out in children […] who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.

(HT: In Socrates’ Wake)

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Applying to PhD Programs in Philosophy

Eric Schwitzgebel has some useful reflections for prospective applicants here.

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A List of Philosophical Activities

Below I have listed brief descriptions for several conferences, grouped by school or organization. In addition to that, I have also listed information on some calls for papers. Please note that some conferences are still accepting papers and some are not, but that information is mentioned. I hope you find this information useful and will be able to attend some of these conferences. Also, good luck to any one who chooses to submit a paper!

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Interested in Doing Ph.D. Work in Continental Philosophy?

Suggestions for which departments might be best suited to your interests are available here.

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