Help with decisions (Political/Legal, Kant/German idealism, History)

[Kassirer]

Hey, just wondering if anyone can help provide me some info on programs. I'm in at Arizona, Penn (though I told them to take me off the list), Pittsburgh, UChicago, and Oxford (BPhil), waitlisted at Berkeley and Toronto. My main interests are political/legal philosophy, Kant, German idealism, and history of philosophy, and to a lesser extent classical philosophy (though I have no facility with Greek and Latin). I'm still waiting to hear back from Stanford and NYU (presumed rejection at NYU).

I'd really appreciate if anyone can offer me advice on the above programs. I'm hearing mixed things from professors (one is really strongly advising me to pick Chicago but doesn't know about Oxford yet, another is somewhat less strongly pushing Chicago, and another is really strongly pushing Pittsburgh), but personally I'm vacillating mostly between Chicago and Oxford at this stage, though still considering Pittsburgh and to a lesser extent Arizona (though I may withdraw my app from Arizona soon).

Any advice?

[shifgrethor]

16 hours ago, Kassirer said:

Hey, just wondering if anyone can help provide me some info on programs. I'm in at Arizona, Penn (though I told them to take me off the list), Pittsburgh, UChicago, and Oxford (BPhil), waitlisted at Berkeley and Toronto. My main interests are political/legal philosophy, Kant, German idealism, and history of philosophy, and to a lesser extent classical philosophy (though I have no facility with Greek and Latin). I'm still waiting to hear back from Stanford and NYU (presumed rejection at NYU).

I'd really appreciate if anyone can offer me advice on the above programs. I'm hearing mixed things from professors (one is really strongly advising me to pick Chicago but doesn't know about Oxford yet, another is somewhat less strongly pushing Chicago, and another is really strongly pushing Pittsburgh), but personally I'm vacillating mostly between Chicago and Oxford at this stage, though still considering Pittsburgh and to a lesser extent Arizona (though I may withdraw my app from Arizona soon).

Any advice?

Visit the departments. If this is a possibility for you, I would honestly withhold judgment until you've seen what it's like there.

You can also tell the DGS about your other offers. Sometimes a department will make their own offer better if you have competing offers.

[Kassirer]

1 hour ago, shifgrethor said:

Visit the departments. If this is a possibility for you, I would honestly withhold judgment until you've seen what it's like there.

You can also tell the DGS about your other offers. Sometimes a department will make their own offer better if you have competing offers.

I'm visiting Pittsburgh this coming week and Chicago two weeks later (25-30). I'm not visiting Oxford (too expensive and they didn't offer to pay for it).

[shifgrethor]

7 minutes ago, Kassirer said:

I'm visiting Pittsburgh this coming week and Chicago two weeks later (25-30). I'm not visiting Oxford (too expensive and they didn't offer to pay for it).

I'll see you at the Pittsburgh visit and we can chat more in person then! Our interests overlap a bit (mainly at Kant, history, ancient, and political/legal - I don't know much about German Idealism).

[tmck3053]

I'll see you at the Pitt visit also. For what it's worth I have been told by some people in the department that there is a huge emphasis on Kant and Hegel at Pittsburgh. That being said, by that I think they mean that many of the philosophers there take inspiration from Kant (McDowell, Ricketts, Wilson) and Hegel (Brandom) in their own work rather than necessarily meaning that they put a strong emphasis on Kant/Hegel scholarship in and of itself.

[Kassirer]

 

11 hours ago, shifgrethor said:

I'll see you at the Pittsburgh visit and we can chat more in person then! Our interests overlap a bit (mainly at Kant, history, ancient, and political/legal - I don't know much about German Idealism).

Sounds great! I'll be arriving Monday night, and I'll be really interested to hear about your thoughts and interests!

12 minutes ago, tmck3053 said:

I'll see you at the Pitt visit also. For what it's worth I have been told by some people in the department that there is a huge emphasis on Kant and Hegel at Pittsburgh. That being said, by that I think they mean that many of the philosophers there take inspiration from Kant (McDowell, Ricketts, Wilson) and Hegel (Brandom) in their own work rather than necessarily meaning that they put a strong emphasis on Kant/Hegel scholarship in and of itself.

Great! See: above.

[thehegeldialectic]

From my brief period of studying with Brandom, I can say that I would definitely agree that it's better for doing "Pittsburgh Hegelianism" than Hegel exegesis. I like Brandom's work a lot, but his exegesis can be very forced in terms of making the text say what Brandom wants it to say. You will learn much more about Brandom than Hegel. I haven't studied with McDowell, but I get the impression from his articles that he's a bit closer to the text when it comes to interpreting Hegel through Hegel's own terminology. But I am not sure about his seminars.

As far as students go, most of the student I met who were working on German Idealism were visiting from other universities. Most of the Pitt students seemed to be taking the course more to understand Brandom's work. The exception would be Kant. Students very much know their Kant at Pitt. Also, I know that they sometimes fly down Sebastian Rödl to teach Kant seminars. Last year McDowell did a year-long course on all three critiques, but apparently Rödl more or less taught the whole thing. 

I work on German Idealism and applied to University of Chicago, but not Pittsburgh. I think that Chicago might be a bit better in terms of doing exegesis, although if you want to be a part of the whole Pittsburgh Hegelianism debate, Pitt might be a better move. 

Edited March 11, 2018 by iunoionnis

[Kassirer]

15 hours ago, iunoionnis said:

From my brief period of studying with Brandom, I can say that I would definitely agree that it's better for doing "Pittsburgh Hegelianism" than Hegel exegesis. I like Brandom's work a lot, but his exegesis can be very forced in terms of making the text say what Brandom wants it to say. You will learn much more about Brandom than Hegel. I haven't studied with McDowell, but I get the impression from his articles that he's a bit closer to the text when it comes to interpreting Hegel through Hegel's own terminology. But I am not sure about his seminars.

As far as students go, most of the student I met who were working on German Idealism were visiting from other universities. Most of the Pitt students seemed to be taking the course more to understand Brandom's work. The exception would be Kant. Students very much know their Kant at Pitt. Also, I know that they sometimes fly down Sebastian Rödl to teach Kant seminars. Last year McDowell did a year-long course on all three critiques, but apparently Rödl more or less taught the whole thing. 

I work on German Idealism and applied to University of Chicago, but not Pittsburgh. I think that Chicago might be a bit better in terms of doing exegesis, although if you want to be a part of the whole Pittsburgh Hegelianism debate, Pitt might be a better move. 

Thank you for the advice! I am probably more inclined to history of philosophy and close exegesis, but I will keep this in mind during my visit at Pitt this week.