Graduate philosophy questions

[wanijsena]

How hard is it to get into a PhD program that isn't on the top lists like Philospphical gourmet and etc.?

How can someone continue to do philosophy if they do not become a professional philosopher? If you read philosophy alone it seems that you could easily go astray and not know what you are doing.

[wanijsena]

23 hours ago, wanijsena said:

How hard is it to get into a PhD program that isn't on the top lists like Philospphical gourmet and etc.?

How can someone continue to do philosophy if they do not become a professional philosopher https://speedtest.vet/ ?  If you read philosophy alone it seems that you could easily go astray and not know what you are doing.

i ogt this....

[maxhgns]

Pretty much all of the funded PhD programs are very competitive--more competitive than medical school (because there are far fewer slots available). So even though some are more competitive than others, they're all hard to get into.

That said, if it doesn't even show up on the PGR, it's probably not worth your time to attend it. You'll probably get a fine education, but the prestige hierarchy in philosophy is pretty unforgiving, and the job market is awful enough without prestige counting against you.

As for how you do it outside academia... Well, it depends on what you mean. Publishing will be extremely difficult without the training and support networks. So that's not a realistic goal. But you can certainly keep reading. And you can attend local colloquia, or even conferences once you've got the disposable money. You can keep abreast of stuff in the online philosophy world, too. You can make friends with philosophers. And so on.