Monadology

There were some eyebrows going up here yesterday about a UCSD acceptance posted on whogotin. I don't know about that post, but my girlfriend got a call from UCSD with an offer yesterday and a follow-up email today. So they are definitely sending out offers.

Sorry! I've met a few people who have expressed your opinion for real, or at least did so because they wanted me to drink with them and were trying to convince me. Sarcasm is hard to catch on the internet.

There are plenty of good reasons not to drink. Some people are allergic to alcohol. Some are unpleasant when intoxicated or find the sensation unpleasant. Others may have addictive tendencies and don't want to risk alcoholism. Yet others might be recovering alcoholics. Some people might prefer for spiritual reason not to partake or may not be fond of the idea of inhibiting their judgment, coordination etc... Finally, some might have had bad experiences with alcohol (such as alcoholic relatives) and be averse to it.

Congrats!

I don't think our understandings differ (at least with respect to what you describe). That's definitely the normal order for sending things out (I mentioned that Baylor was unusual if they sent out rejections first). However, my understanding is that when evaluating applications they focus on narrowing the pool first, which usually doesn't mean rejecting people officially (because they hold off on that until much later) but it does mean excluding them from the pool of applicants that are initially accepted or wait-listed. I inferred from that that if Baylor was only sending out rejections, they may prioritize elimination both in evaluation and in sending out notification.

As far as I understand it, the usual procedure is to first focus on elimination and then, once a small enough pool is left, start looking really hard to decide who to send offers to and who to wait-list. Baylor is pretty unusual in sending our rejections first. It's not clear whether they do that in waves (elimination 100 students at a time or something) or all at once. Still, you can probably feel confident you survived the first cut.

Thanks!

Sure! I'm not sure the level of specificity that's most helpful so I'll start at the most general: Agency/Action theory, German Idealism/19th Century Continental, 20th Century Continental and Philosophy of Language

Got a fully-funded offer from UC Riverside this morning by email!

I have no idea. I don't know if I want a Plan B. I've spent 7 years working towards Plan A. I think it would be nice going with the flow a little instead of struggling to implement some other plan for how I want my life to go.

I have a question: I think I would find it hard to let things go if I were turning my attention towards my own state. Could you elaborate a little more on how it works?

I ran out of positive votes for today so I'm just going to say this is an excellent suggestion. There is no shame in talk therapy.

This is a great idea for a thread. Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions beyond what has been suggested, but I do have a quote! “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” (Søren Kierkegaard, Journals) I find it helps me, on top of managing stress, that I think I have ways to manage stress. It makes me much more optimistic and keeps me from feeling out of control.

You have every right to be furious. At the same time, it's possible something very significant and very personal has come up for the professor. They could at least specify as such ("it's nothing to do with you, it's related to family"), which, on top of everything else, is good cause to be angry. But if it's something very serious (the death of someone very close to them) they may not be thinking things through due to the distraction. Though perhaps I'm making too much room for charity. In any case, I hope things work out for the best. I had a letter-writer who took longer than I was comfortable with and I had nightmares of this very scenario happening. I can't even imagine what it's like to actually be there.

I didn't mean to suggest anyone was being paranoid* and I wasn't talking about any particular individual's case. For instance, TheVineyard wants to make sure to remain anonymous until they've heard back which suggests it has something to do with admissions. Further, the trend seems to be towards anonymity generally and given the nature of this forum, I was inclined to think that the trend was a result of wanting to remain anonymous for admissions-related reasons. I'm didn't intend to make anyone feel judged or misunderstood. *- In fact, I think it's quite reasonable to, for instance, to remain anonymous just in case. I was just wondering if there was some concern I wasn't aware of. I also think there's nothing wrong with being a private person.

I'm a little confused. I'm having trouble picturing what negative consequences a failure of anonymity would produce. There doesn't seem to be much material in these forums which an adcom, even if they saw it, could use to infer much about the candidate. Is it just the fact that with anonymity nothing could possibly go wrong? Or am I missing some scenario here that would influence admissions.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07-01/opinion/ct-edit-bp-20130701_1_indiana-regulators-mercury-refinery http://www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/low-lake-levels-pollution-plague-lake-michigan/-/10148890/21856260/-/65oab7z/-/index.html I imagine the above and the giant man-eating squid.

I'm probably not the best person to ask, since this is the first real city I've lived in. I'm also a bit of a homebody and I don't drink. I get the impression from my peers that there are fun bars and the like. There's also an art museum that's free on Thursdays. The public transport seems decent to me. If you can find a place near one of the bus lines, which isn't too hard, it's a snap getting to and from campus since buses run pretty regularly (and you get a free bus pass from the university). I've lived on the eastern edge of Riverwest which is a fairly hip and happening place with cheap housing and a young punk/artist/hipster sorta crowd. Very homey in some ways, with a local co-op, independent bookstore and coffee-shop hangout. Crime has been iffy lately, but it's not Baltimore or Detroit or anything. East of the river is usually fine (though muggings around Campus seem to happen every so often). Once you start going west it can get pretty rough.

I thought the program was excellent. I have improved a lot and feel that I received a great philosophical education there. Just looking back at the writing sample I used to apply the year I was admitted to UWM, there is a substantial difference. Setting aside philosophical writing, my ability to read difficult philosophy has definitely improved a lot as well. The program also seems to function quite well with respect to its aim: helping its students get into PhD programs. My class did pretty well. They had a 75% success rate placing students into programs (9/12). 5 of the 9 who were accepted got into top-20 programs. Second-years have a writing workshop during the Fall semester which is geared around improving your philosophical writing, primarily by subjecting your intended writing sample to scrutiny by peers. The feedback can be very valuable, though it will depend in part on your peer-group. With that remark I should say that my class was full of wonderful people and so my experience at the program may have been more positive than students who have a less friendly/helpful peer group. If you're looking for a program that's going to also help guide you in professionalizing to give you a competitive edge in the job-market down the line, there isn't really much attention paid to that. They do have funds to help students present at conferences when there is opportunity, but they don't integrate coaching on presenting/publishing into the program. The focus is definitely on getting you into a PhD program. I mention this because I know a small number of students currently in the program feel a little anxious that they haven't gotten much advice about professional issues. I'm not sure if those anxieties are warranted since, presumably, the PhD program you end up in is supposed to help you with that. I also don't know if other MA programs include that sort of coaching. As far as the faculty, I found them eager to help. I can't speak for all of them, but all of the ones I can speak for are helpful people who are very open and happy to meet with you. On the flipside, levels of togetherness (i.e. organization and speed of communication) vary. Most of them are reliable in my experience. I'm happy to answer questions about individual faculty (inasmuch as I can) via PM. EDIT: For anyone who wants to know how the department fares as far as the climate for women/LGBT, I may be able to put you in touch with (or relay an answer from) a female graduate student currently in attendance who would have better observations than I. Just PM me and I'll see if she is willing.

I can answer questions about UW Milwaukee's MA program. I graduated from it last year.

Some standout selections: Fifteen reported cases, imagine how many unreported "There have been at least 15 complaints that have been filed with ODH, and a significant number of faculty and graduate students have directly witnessed or been subjected to this harassment and inappropriate sexualized unprofessional behavior. We observed that many faculty members are not knowledgeable about the harms of sexual harassment on the person being harassed, on all women in the department, and on all department members through the extreme negative effect this behavior has on the department climate." No Kidding "The female graduate students report being anxious, demoralized, and depressed. Some female students report that they avoid working with some faculty members because of things that they have heard about those faculty members. Some female students report avoiding working with faculty members because they directly witnessed or were subjected to this harassment and inappropriate sexualized unprofessional behavior. There was and is a lack of support for students who lost their advisors or instructors due to sanctions. The female graduate students would like more women in the department but they cannot recommend this department as a good place to come." An all too familiar phenomenon "The Department uses pseudo-‐philosophical analyses to avoid directly addressing the situation. Their faculty discussions revolve around the letter rather than the spirit of proposed regulations and standards. They spend too much time articulating (or trying to articulate) the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior instead of instilling higher expectations for professional behavior. They spend significant time debating footnotes and “what if” scenarios instead of discussing what they want their department to look and feel like. In other words, they spend time figuring out how to get around regulations rather than focusing on how to make the department supportive of women and family-‐friendly." Talk about oblivious "As we were putting this report together, we became aware of a proposal for a departmental spring retreat. We would like to use this proposal to illustrate what must happen for this unit to become functional again. The proposal in part is as follows: “The idea is that we’ll have a full day of talks in Boulder on Friday, and then head to a house or two in the mountains (in the Vail/Beaver Creek/Avon/Edwards area) for Friday, Saturday, and perhaps Sunday nights. There will be unscheduled time Saturday during the day, with more talks Saturday late afternoon/early evening.” While we are very supportive of the idea of departmental retreats, in the light of this department’s history, all events, including retreats, need to be held during business hours (9-­‐5) and on campus or near campus in public venues. The proposed departmental spring retreat is an exemplar for a family-­‐unfriendly event. Under no circumstances should this department (or any other) be organizing the social calendars of its members. Under no circumstances should this department sponsor or be affiliated in any way with an event that includes alcohol. [...] To be perfectly honest, we are floored that members of this department would believe that having another mountain event would be a good idea, given the unprofessional behavior that transpired at the last one." [Emphasis mine]

Mostly Erik Satie and Arvo Pärt, but when I'm in an especially focused mood I can listen to music in languages I can't understand (Magma, primarily).

Which Hegel scholar? Also, what's your methodology and how does it differ from Hegel's? I suspect that is why, even in light of much recent and active interest in German idealism and proximate philosophers, Nietzsche gets far more attention than Kierkegaard. It's a pretty understandable reaction. But there are, I think, two dimensions with respect to which non-Christian individuals can learn from Kierkegaard (or Christians with theological differences): 1) Kierkegaard's not just interested in Christianity and religion, but with what it means to be human. He was obsessed with Socrates almost as much as with Christ. He has things to say about being human that are independent of particular religious dogma. Most of this material comes from Kierkegaard's pseudonymous works and involve concerns about ethics/normativity, agency, and the significance of human finitude. Some of his religious writings are also significant (in particular those that are more Platonic than Christian, such as Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing). For examples of this, one could look toward Anthony Rudd's work (especially Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical), MacIntyre's critique and the responses of Kierkegaard scholars, Patrick Stokes' work etc... 2) Kierkegaard's entire attack on Christendom, despite being an essentially religious project, may have some important things to say about how we relate to our culture and what it means to critique it (here, Socrates again bears a lot of significance). For examples of this, one could look at Jonathan Lear's work on irony or Jennifer Lockhart's work on ignorant knowledge.

My AoI's are philosophy of agency/action, philosophy of language, German Idealism & Continental philosophy. I noticed that philosophy of agency/action isn't listed. Is that subsumed under some other category and I don't realize it?

I think some pretty prominent contemporary philosophers, such as John McDowell and Robert Brandom, would be inclined to disagree with you on that. To answer the OP's question: Kierkegaard & Wittgenstein. EDIT: Replaced unhelpful snark.