isostheneia

How do you find the overall environment at Columbia? Is it generally supportive of grad students? How about for studying Kant/Hegel - do the grad students who work on this stuff seem pleased with the department? If you feel comfortable answering, what do you think of the professors who work in this area (either individually or more generally)? Also, if you can answer this, how much is Honneth actually on campus? (I've heard he's in Germany a lot.)

Hi, folks. Undergrad: I'm graduating this spring. Research university, pretty well-ranked on PGR and in general. Philosophy major, ~3.75 GPA, ~3.85 in philosophy. I've taken two grad courses, both within my areas of interest and with professors I hope to write me letters of rec (one being my adviser). Other stuff: Haven't taken the GRE yet, not looking forward to it. I presented at three conferences last year, another this spring. No publications, but I co-founded an undergrad philosophy journal. Writing sample: Planning on using a revised (and substantially shortened) version of my BA thesis. I look at a debate within contemporary Hegel scholarship, try to get clear about the disagreement, and attempt to resolve it by giving an original reading of the relevant sections of text. Actually, that's due on Friday, so I should probably be working on that rather than looking at gradcafe. Interests: German Idealism, particularly Kant and Hegel. Also, epistemology and philosophy of logic (including but not limited to contemporary appropriations of Kant and Hegel on these topics). I'm also interested in philosophy of film, but that's so far removed from my other interests that I'm not planning on including it as part of my pitch.

If you have more thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them. I'll be applying this fall and using a writing sample on Hegel. Also, on the off-chance you'd be willing to share your sample, I'd be very interested to read it

Historically, Kant and Hegel. More recently, Sellars and McDowell. All of them think weird but cool things, and write them in weird but cool ways.

If I'm Godel, and I'm proving things about provability in certain types of logical systems, I'm still doing logic. If I'm Kant, and I'm saying that the laws of logic are both normative laws for how we should think and laws constitutive of thought itself, I'm doing philosophy of logic. Certainly, though, it's more of a dotted than a solid line between them.

(Philosophical) logic and philosophy of logic are sufficiently different fields - one involves doing logic (in some sense), while the other involves thinking about logic. Roughly. Also, I know there's no history of philosophy on there, but the PGR seems to break it down pretty well: Ancient Medieval Early modern - 17th c. Early modern - 18th c. Kant (seems to warrant his own category in terms of the amount of work done) 19th c. Hist. of analytic philosophy 20th c. In terms of my own case, I'm mainly interested in a couple areas of history of philosophy: Kant, 19th century (Hegel esp.), and history of analytic philosophy. Plus epistemology and philosophy of logic, both as they relate to these historical areas and in self-standing contemporary discussion.

Although I've posted asking for recommendations for schools on another thread, I'll give a bit more detailed info and ask again here. My primary interest is in contemporary work on/appropriations of Kant and Hegel in epistemology and philosophy of mind. I also like work on them on their own merits (Pippin, Sedgwick, etc). Beyond Kant and Hegel, I have a more general interest in German philosophy, from Herder and Schleiermacher to Marx and Nietzsche, Heidegger, Wittgenstein. Somewhat relatedly, I have an interest in Sellars and related folks like Davidson, Rorty, Brandom, McDowell, and a bit more distant people like Strawson and Evans. I also have an interest in philosophy of film, particularly along the lines of Cavell. But I wouldn't make this a requirement for my willingness to attend a grad school; rather, it'd be a nice thing for a school to have. Any recommendations?

Bar_scene_gambler, I see you're interested in applying to UChicago, and I definitely recommend that. Depending on the strength of your writing sample (most of what gets you in), I think you'd be a very attractive applicant to them. They don't really have anybody that does work on Eastern philosophy, but they have a great mix of analytic and continental, and your coursework seems to be in line with a lot of work folks do there (good stuff on Nietzsche and currently strengthening their 20th century French faculty). Especially having taken Wittgenstein and some OLP. Anyway, I'd definitely encourage you to apply and spending some time showing how good a fit it'd be for you.

Sorry it took so long for me to respond to these helpful answers... To bakedalaska, Pittsburgh is definitely one of my top choices, if not my first choice. One of my concerns is that Brandom and McDowell probably won't be around for a very long time, and although Pitt certainly has a lot of other great people, losing the opportunity to work with them would be really unfortunate. To superhamdi, thanks much for the advice on GRE. I plan on starting my studying for them immediately after graduation (or maybe in the last month or two before graduation), and then taking the GRE in early fall in time for grad school applications. I certainly don't want to underestimate the level of preparation I should have, so your reminder is helpful. And to bar_scene_gambler, I certainly don't mind! In fact, I'll come over to the thread you created. And one other thing: I think I might know you from one of the undergrad conferences this past April, in NY. I don't want to say anything to compromise anonymity, but if you're who I think you are, you emailed me a copy of the paper you presented, a week or two after the conference. Sound like you? Finally, if anyone has any more recommendations for programs I should look at, I'd love to hear them. I'm very attracted to Pitt and UChicago, mainly places that value both analytic and continental philosophy.

Hi folks, I was wondering if you had any feedback on my profile as an applicant to philosophy grad schools. I'll be a senior in the fall, and plan on applying the fall after I graduate for 2015 matriculation. Undergrad school: top 10 US News, top 20 PGR - analytic department with larger than usual continental emphasis GPA: 3.66, 3.80 in philosophy GRE: haven't taken, but I did well on the SAT, so I'm not too concerned Writing sample: will be writing a senior thesis on McDowell and Hegel 3 undergraduate conference presentations - 2 epistemology (McDowell and Williamson) and 1 ethics (Hacking and Foucault) Co-founding an undergraduate philosophy journal at my university Letters of rec: will likely be getting a few of the more well-known people at my department to write my letters, and they seem to have a relatively high opinion of me as of now Coursework: will be taking some grad courses and advanced undergrad/grad courses next year, as of now: History of Phil - Modern and Kant + 19th century Germany Intermediate Logic Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit Kierkegaard and Nietzsche Descartes's Meditations Conceptual Change, Rationalism, and Relativity (Kuhn, Davidson, Wittgenstein, Cavell) Wonder, Magic, and Skepticism (Hume and Wittgenstein) Epistemology and the Concept of Mind (Davidson, Sellars, Brandom, McDowell, Williamson) Intro to Phil of Mind History of Aesthetics Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception Intro to Heidegger Foucault's History of Sexuality Areas of interest: Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy, epistemology (tied to secondary interests in phil of mind and language), philosophy of film (though finding a department that does phil of film in addition to my other interests well is more a hope than an expectation) I'm planning on applying to a lot of high ranked (according to PGR) grad schools, but I'm not sure of my chances and would love some feedback. It's my impression that there's nothing in my application that would necessarily disqualify me at top schools, but that most top departments are a long shot for anybody. I'm also looking for departments that aren't too exclusively analytic or continental - I'd like some integration. One of my main interests is appropriations of Kant and Hegel for contemporary purposes, especially in epistemology. So if you have any recommendations for departments I should look at, I'd love to hear. Thanks!

I know Michael Forster just moved from University of Chicago to Bonn, so that might be a place to investigate. He does great work with Kant, Herder, and Hegel in particular.