dgswaim

I got into it for the ladies.

Fear not, fellow philosopher. The craft beer culture in Austin is thriving. Austin Beer Works, 512 Brewing, Real Ale, Jester King and Adelbert's are all great crafters of beer in the area, and that's just scratching the surface. You're in good shape.

Lame.

Don't count on it. Great tacos, though.

Just got my official rejection from Purdue via Paul Draper. Shucks.

If you're working out a sample on Post-Structuralist Derridiean Metametaphysics, please shoot me a copy.

I was wondering, for those who took a Master's before moving onto doctoral work, how early you started preparing for PhD admissions. MA stints are pretty quick, so it seems like it would be best to start thinking about it as early as possible. How early did you start developing a sample? Developing relationships with potential letter writers? Figuring out where you want to apply? Etc. etc. etc. One thing I know... next time I'm going to aim higher with respect to the schools I apply to...

I knew a guy a few years back who only applied to NYU and was admitted. Talk about confidence.

If I were one for Bayes theoretic approaches to the theodicy problem in philosophy of religion, I'd be inclined to say that ianfaircloud's having been shut out of philosophy admissions qualifies as evidence against the existence of God. I just find it totally unbelievable. That just sucks.

Seriously... congrats dude. Such a cool department. I saw Loren Lomasky give a talk once... what a character. I'm sure you'll be incredibly happy there.

I've been holding onto hope that Purdue would swoop in at the last moment and perform a daring rescue, taking me away from the cold lonely remnants of wait-list land. It seems as though it is not to be. Geaux Tigers!

Currently drinking "Rare Breed." Overproof bourbon gets the job done quick.

I'll take a Talisker 18 year . Congrats!

"Shoot some of this and it'll teleologically suspend the sphere of the ethical."

Ol' Kierk. Never been my cup 'o' tea as a philosopher or theologian. "Fear and Trembling" has some cool parts, though. Interestingly, I took a minor in theology as an undergrad, and one of the courses I took was a seminar in Christian Existentialism. We read lots of Kierkegaard, Tillich, Unamuno, and that sort of thing. To be honest... I don't really get the whole "existentialism" thing. None of it made much sense to me. Kierkegaard perhaps least of all.

I'd take the offer from USF, were it me. There's no guarantee that you'd have success in PhD admissions after taking a MA from GSU, even though GSU is a strong program. It might be a good credential to have, and it might make you super competitive and get you into so top-notch places... or you might get shut out. It's all so tricky and unpredictable. Besides, you can matriculate to USF as a PhD student, spend two years there and get an MA, and then apply to other programs and transfer if you want. I just know I'd prefer the safer bet, which is USF in my opinion. They're both good options, though, so it's a nice problem to have.

There's little sense in speaking on whether or not one can "prove" the existence of God. So far as I can tell, philosophers have great difficulty in "proving" the existence of the external world, the objective existence of abstract mathematical objects, the broad coherence of various sentences in scientific theories insofar as they are understood to accurately track reality, and so on. So insofar as demonstrable "proofs" are concerned, it seems the existence of God is on equal footing with these various concepts. The question, then, isn't one of "proving" the existence of God (or whatever), but rather a question of evaluating all of the available evidence (whatever one might count as evidence) in support of or against God's existence (or whatever). I, along with many others, feel that the evidence better supports the existence of God than it's denial. This represents a pattern of inductive inference, not a proof.

If I had epistemology, then why is it that, at the end of the day, I always be wondering about stuff. I mean, faith is good and stuff, but sometimes I'm all like, "I don't even know." You know? I feel like I just need to relax.

There's something wrong with the idea that faith is "the acceptance of certain ideas in full knowledge that they can't be proven," too. Many people maintain their faith claims based on certain evidential moorings. It seems to me that this is all anyone can expect from an individual relative to any claimed belief set.

There are a number of problems with this statement relative to religious epistemology, and epistemology in general. I won't address them here. As to Dembski and ID, they gave Dembski a big appointment to head-up the Polanyi center for ID research, and then a bunch of anti-ID types (both from within Baylor and from elsewhere) took up arms against the center and Dembski was essentially forced out of the university. I think it's a stronger indictment against Baylor that they forced this scholar out based on academic controversy than that they gave him the appointment in the first place.

I might be hitting you up for some insider info on neighborhoods and the like in a couple of years.

Fantastic! So much tension in the air today. Gotta love the high drama. Good luck!

While I'm religious in a way, it is certainly not in a fundamentalist way, and I would have been quite happy to have studied at Baylor (had they accepted me ). Pruss and Evans are top-notch philosophers, in my opinion.

Austin is such a great place to live. I really hope you get in. If you do, feel free to PM me if you want info on neighborhoods, transportation, or anything else. Pulling for you!

Congrats! I think I'm going to apply there on the next go around. Seems like a good place to be.