Ancient Philosopher VS Modern Philosophy

[MarcHarold]

Hello all! 

I am going to major in philosophy [undergraduate], and I am hesitating between specializing in ancient philosophy or modern philosophy. How should I go about this choice?

I know that I find ancient thoughts to be interesting, but is this sufficient to choose ancient philosophy as specialization? Does ancient philosophy require particular skills? Or maybe I should go with  modern philosophy instead? 

Thank you for your help.

[SmugSnugInARug]

6 hours ago, MarcHarold said:

Hello all! 

I am going to major in philosophy [undergraduate], and I am hesitating between specializing in ancient philosophy or modern philosophy. How should I go about this choice?

I know that I find ancient thoughts to be interesting, but is this sufficient to choose ancient philosophy as specialization? Does ancient philosophy require particular skills? Or maybe I should go with  modern philosophy instead? 

Thank you for your help.

Hi @MarcHarold, what exactly do you mean by specializing in ancient/modern? Is there a particular distinction at your undergrad that you are referring to (like, are they two different majors?) or are you thinking more generally about the kinds of classes you want to take? Fortunately, if you are thinking generally, in most philosophy undergrads you don’t really ‘specialize,’ you just take classes your interested in (and in some cases, take a language that will help you read those particular texts you are interested enough in that you want to read them in the original language).

I tend to recommend to my students who want to go to grad school in philosophy think of it like this: 

1. Get a good, well rounded education in philosophy. Take courses from every topic plus the ones that interest you the most. ‘Specializing’ in a field in undergrad doesn’t really exist except if the school has distinct majors, but I suspect even then they wouldn’t look too different to grad committees. And realistically your interests are going to change. I started off in undergrad doing analytic philosophies of language and now my focus is largely on continental readings of Plato.

2. Learn a language you want to read that is related to philosophy you actually want to read (Ancient Greek, Latin, French, German being the big four). If you fall in love with Greek/Latin, consider double majoring in classics.

3. Take at least two or three classes in a particular topic you are really interested in, to give you a few chances to produce a solid writing sample on a subject you’ve looked at repeatedly.

 

[maxhgns]

One doesn't really specialize as an undergrad, at least not at the schools with which I'm familiar. One can write an honours thesis, of course, which would then take you to the entry-point for an area of specialization. If that's what you're talking about, though, then unless you're entering your last year, there's plenty of time for a path to suggest itself to you, and I wouldn't rush it. When the time comes, you'll need an area that you find interesting, and a problem you can sink your teeth into. You'll have to ask some kind of open question, and research your answer thoroughly. Doing this work at the undergraduate level does not require special skills, beyond the ones you pick up as a major in the subject. Knowing the relevant language could help, since it would open up more research outlets to you, and allow you to read the original, but it's not required by any means. At least, not usually; it would be very silly indeed to require it for unpublished undergrad research.

For readers who might be thinking of ancient vs. modern as a PhD topic, I suppose I should point out that the ancient market is small, but steady, and that the modern market is sort of booming at the moment (but unlikely to maintain that momentum for more than a few years, at best, at which point it'll revert to quite small and more-or-less-steady). At that point, you'll need to learn the relevant language(s). Modern scholars often have a harder time, though, since it's not uncommon for supervisors to demand proficiency in Greek, Latin, and French, and often German, too.