brettmullga

Have you all found that taking math courses makes doing Philosophy easier? In my experience, picking up some of the language and ideas of mathematics, sets, relations, etc., has led to better structured work. Obviously, there's significant overlap with logic. Do Philosophy adcoms care about proof based math courses?

Much of my reading is related to the courses I'm currently taking. For instance, for my Contemporary Ethics course, I read both Gauthier's Morals by Agreement and Scanlon's what we owe to each other though they were not part of the course work as primary texts. I prefer books to journal articles, unless it's an introductory article like SEP or part of a larger series. It usually feels as though something is lacking with most journal articles in the sense that I miss the big picture. It seems as though I jump between sub-fields often; however, I try to stick to more analytically/mathematical philosophy. Though I read often, it is sporadic! I may take a day or two off and then log in a ten hour 'work' day. My advise if one attempts the sub-field approach is to find interested friends/professors to discuss it with. I've found that relying exclusively on independent study leads to misconceptions and general confusion. For those interested in Phil of Science and Econ/Social Science (there aren't a lot of us), here are two blogs to check out: Unlearning Economics and Understanding Society.