Platonist

Re: all of the posts above regarding logic: 
 
(1) Would you guys please recommend good textbooks on second-order logic? I've never taken logic courses beyond first-order ones, and want to read over some good second-order logic texts. 
 
(2) A humble opinion: Logic, first-order or higher, cannot really avoid ontological commitment. Frege seemed to try to avoid the ontological import when he based logic on such notions as functions and concepts, but he eventually took a realist position regarding mathematical objects (and on universals, I think). 
 
Thanks. 

Oh, yeah. I thought I was underqualified at every school I applied to. But now I am no longer so sure about this. Will apply to the HFU (if you still remember it) next round in case I am viewed as overqualified at all other schools.  

Oh, yeah. I thought I was underqualified at every school I applied to. But now I am no longer so sure about this. Will apply to the HFU (if you still remember it) next round in case I am viewed as overqualified at all other schools.  

A nominalist might say that the general term 'being courageous' just stands for the collection of all courageous things (or the 'extension' of the term 'courageous'). The problem with that is that accidentally co-extensive terms would end up being identical (e.g. 'creature with a heart' might end up meaning the same as 'creature with a kidney').  The possible worlds business you described is supposed to overcome this problem, because, when we consider the extension of a term across all possible worlds there will be no cases of terms which are accidentally co-extensive (i.e. there will be a possible world containing creature's with hearts but lacking kidneys).  
A very different approach is to think of properties as particulars (or 'tropes') and explain the fact that a multiplicity of particulars can be brought together under a general term by an appeal to a similarity relation between the particulars; the relation in turn is an 'internal one' (i.e. not another universal). 

I just recently read a bunch of introductions to philosophy of mind in order to get a broad perspective on how the field is being presented.
 
I enjoyed William Jaworksi's introduction the most. It was pretty balanced, organized well, and pretty straight forward. However, the last 100 pages (of 350 pages total) were essentially his argument for a renewal of hylomorphism. I read some of it, but didn't finish the ending because it really should have been another book altogether.
 
John Heil's introduction is also good. Get the 3rd edition if you read this one. 
 
Last, I liked Jaegwon Kim's Philosophy of Mind, 3rd ed. He is very knowledgeable and presents a lot of angles and their opposing views in a good way—although, sometimes his own perspective colors the argument pretty heavily. 

I attended a 'National 101-200'. No PhD program for our department.

Oh, so sorry. I did not mean to offend logos or anybody. By that remark, I really meant to say that it is ridiculous that the program does not offer funding for the incoming PhD students. They should know it is extremely difficult for one to pursue a PhD while working hard to earn money to have the costs covered. I think it is fair to fund every PhD student they decide to take. If my previous post sounds inappropriate, I really apologize. Thanks for your understanding. Sincerely hope logos will get into his hoped-for program with funding.
 
Edit: I am so bad at not posting things that accurately state what I want to say -- I need a language training. I am so stupid sometimes  . I will be more cautious when posting. 

All good--we all come across the wrong way sometimes (at least I know I do!), and it's cool that you took responsibility for it. Well-earned upvote!

Oh, so sorry. I did not mean to offend logos or anybody. By that remark, I really meant to say that it is ridiculous that the program does not offer funding for the incoming PhD students. They should know it is extremely difficult for one to pursue a PhD while working hard to earn money to have the costs covered. I think it is fair to fund every PhD student they decide to take. If my previous post sounds inappropriate, I really apologize. Thanks for your understanding. Sincerely hope logos will get into his hoped-for program with funding.
 
Edit: I am so bad at not posting things that accurately state what I want to say -- I need a language training. I am so stupid sometimes  . I will be more cautious when posting. 

Sorry, but I am wondering how one could pursue a 5-year PhD without financial support? It is going to be a lot of money that one cannot earn by working part-time like a dog. I cannot get it.

I knew that post would look weird! i'm happy to explain:
 
1. I feel uncomfortable making a final decision before I've heard back from every school.
2. I wrote my thesis/have done additional work in non-classical theories of logic, disquotational truth, and paradoxes, and additionally have interests in feminist ethics. this makes uconn potentially the best fit for my interests of any school i applied to. (my writing sample was about beall's semantic dialetheism)
3. My undergrad advisor is moving there. I don't want to continue working with the same advisor (and, from what i can understand, that's a near-universally bad idea), but his (romantic) partner [*edit: they're married, this isn't meant to be a gossipy/down-low thing. i just say 'partner' whenever possible. they're married.*] is moving with him, and her (research) partner from another school is moving there with her! I barely took classes with my advisor's partner, but am becoming way more interested in her area than when I was an undergrad, and was already heavily interested in her research partner's work, and would be stoked to work with him.
4. From what's on their website, their funding is way better than any other public school I have gotten into.
5. Personal reasons would make staying on the east coast really, really, really convenient. This was not the case when I applied, or else I probably would have applied to more than six schools on the east coast.
6. Given the tons of funding the department is getting, and the expansion of the department over the last couple years (which might not be finished?!), I would be really surprised if UConn wasn't much, much higher in the PGR by the time I'm graduating. (I'd have to be more critical of this point once I was actually making a decision if I got into UConn, but right now as a factor, I think it's safe to consider that a department that has doubled its size and poached at least four senior faculty from higher ranked schools is going to move up in the rankings)
 
This isn't to say that I know for certain that I would choose UConn over any of those other schools. Or that it's likely, even. But I hope this is enough to show why, if my application is being considered there, I would like a chance to visit/consider it before deciding on another program. I'm not so wedded to my interests to where I'd pass up Stanford just because they don't have any dialetheists, or anything crazy like that.
 
And, yeah, I've heard Storrs is a pretty awful place. Look at the list of schools I applied to and you'll see a familiar theme: I only applied to places that were either (i) in or near areas that are nice to live or (ii) in the state of connecticut

Yes, I agree. I was just curious why philosopheme is very interested in UConn at Storrs; I did not mean to be offensive. Congrats to philosopheme on the multiple acceptances to choose from! 

Yes, I agree. I was just curious why philosopheme is very interested in UConn at Storrs; I did not mean to be offensive. Congrats to philosopheme on the multiple acceptances to choose from! 

I really do not understand. You have so many much BETTER offers than UConn, why care so much about UConn? If you are offered admission at UConn, would you choose it over Stanford, Northwestern, UT-Austin? Sorry for my remarks. But I am really confused. 

I really do not understand. You have so many much BETTER offers than UConn, why care so much about UConn? If you are offered admission at UConn, would you choose it over Stanford, Northwestern, UT-Austin? Sorry for my remarks. But I am really confused. 

I really do not understand. You have so many much BETTER offers than UConn, why care so much about UConn? If you are offered admission at UConn, would you choose it over Stanford, Northwestern, UT-Austin? Sorry for my remarks. But I am really confused. 

I really do not understand. You have so many much BETTER offers than UConn, why care so much about UConn? If you are offered admission at UConn, would you choose it over Stanford, Northwestern, UT-Austin? Sorry for my remarks. But I am really confused. 

For unknown reasons, I still cling to the delusional hope with some schools that I have not yet heard a rejection. It is so stupid. 

Yes, this is the last week that we will hear good news from schools like Michigan. Michigan will sent out the acceptances this week. Given many people will sit on the extra offers and wait lists for a while, the wait lists will not move significantly until April 15. Best of luck to all those who are dying to get off the wait lists.
 
Zizeksucks, you WILL be accepted to UV off the wait list, because Lord of Analytic Philosophy is very pleased by your aspirations to serve analytic philosophy. 

She is so considerate! Folks on the wait lists will surely appreciate her doing so. I bet she is a *moral* philosopher. 

Two points, based on my experience as an history undergraduate at a liberal arts college that does extremely well in graduate school admissions, including in philosophy:
 
My school has a very strong philosophy department, but it is by no means an NYU or a Rutgers. Yet graduate schools trust its recommendation letters and accept its students. (I think by one reckoning my school is the LAC with the best acceptance track record at philosophy grad schools, in fact—and one of the few Leiter deigns to mention on the PGR website.)
 
It seems to me that people on this board may sometimes overestimate the importance of having a recommendation letter from a big-name philosopher. Sure, having letters from reputable philosophers/departments whose background and achievements the adcom can quickly look at is important, but the actual content of the letters is surely weighted far more heavily. Which is not to deny the existence of an unfair prejudice against faculty from departments which aren’t “on the map,” because I’m sure that has worked against many an applicant in the past. But as long as you come from a recognizable department at least, I think the names of your letter writers are less important than the actual letters themselves.
 
I suspect there may be a slight bias at play here; because applicants don’t, for the most part, read their recommendation letters, but they do know who wrote them and where those people stand in academia, when looking for reasons they were rejected, applicants assume the deciding factor was the one they are familiar with, rather than acknowledging the possibility that their letters were simply not that convincing. (Or, which is more likely, that their application was perfectly good, but admissions were so competitive that good applications were denied and only stand-out applicants got in.)
 
Do let me know if you think I’m underestimating the unpleasantness of philosophy grad school admissions. As someone with an interest in philosophy and many friends in the phil department at my school, I have been following this website, Leiter Reports, and other philosophy blogs for a long time, but of course that is no substitute for living through the actual experience of applying.
 
2. I get the sense philosophy grad school admissions are more competitive than history grad school admissions. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a single person applying to history grad schools from my school getting completely shut out. In all fairness, I haven’t heard of that happening to a philosophy student either, but looking at this board makes it seem like it is a very common occurrence.
 
Good luck to all who are still waiting to hear back from schools or hoping to get off the waitlist somewhere! And sorry for invading your space on Grad Café! I have been following your fortunes with interest and trepidation (in no small part because I'll be applying to grad school this year myself) and could not stop myself from commenting, but I will understand if you find my interjection unwelcome.

Hi you guys who received multiple offers, 
 
time to move on to withdraw from the wait lists and deny the offers that you will not take? Poor folks are waiting to get off waitlists in desperation.   This application season is almost over. You may get a drink from me  .

I don't know if it's getting old, but I certainly understand why people are saying this. In this forum, it seems like some people sit on offers that they are sure they will turn down for quite awhile. It doesn't make sense to try and rush someone who is honestly deciding between a few schools (especially if they are visiting multiple programs), but I think that gently reminding others that lots of people are waiting on a decision isn't the worst thing. 

Hi you guys who received multiple offers, 
 
time to move on to withdraw from the wait lists and deny the offers that you will not take? Poor folks are waiting to get off waitlists in desperation.   This application season is almost over. You may get a drink from me  .