Political Philosophy

[analogue]

Greetings to all,

I am a Political Science major from a mid-level US liberal arts college with great interest in Continental Philosophy (19-20th century, esp. post-modernity) and Political Philosophy of 20th century. These interests I would love to pursue on the MA stage of my education.

That is, my first question is what political philosophy departments could fit me, given my interests. I am only starting on the "track" but just to name few thinkers I am interested in -- Lyotard, Foucault, Nancy etc. Understandably these thinkers (and alike) are not very popular among political philosophers of today, but yet...

And my second question is (as I am only during my first years at college) what should one do to get accepted to respected MA (or better PhD) program? Top grades, good recommendations, excellent writing sample -- this is all obvious. Yet, what kind of extracurricular activities should I be involved with? Right now, I am doing what I like -- I am trying to write some essays and short articles and publish them somewhere or attend some relevant conferences, but, unfortunately, no significant luck there yet.

This is all for now, thanks in advance to everybody!

[koolherc]

I'm also interested in this, but it seems like Political Philosophy departments don't exist. (! ? !)

Can anyone offer some help on this?

[vitaminquartet]

Political philosophy is studied in philosophy depts, political science depts, government depts, and law depts (and probably some sociology depts.) but not as a separate department anywhere i know.

[parapraxis]

http://www.york.ac.uk/politics/prospective/postgraduates/pg-courses/themaprogrammesinpoliticalphilosophy/ma-political-philosophy/

York in Canada has a Poltical Phil MA-- they have good placement too

Also check out Sussex http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cspt/1-3-5.html for an MA in Social and Political Thought

[trudeau]

A great blog post on political theory vs. political philosophy.

http://profs-polisci.mcgill.ca/levy/theory-philosophy.html

[Syrah]

A great blog post on political theory vs. political philosophy.

http://profs-polisci...philosophy.html

Thanks for that! I'm anticipating a possible admission into both disciplines at a school where the respective departments are pretty highly respected. This distinction has been dominating my existence for the past 3 weeks...

Edited February 27, 2012 by Syrah

[trudeau]

The distinction is probably a lot less significant than you are imagining. It essentially comes down to this: political theory is "richer", political philosophy is more "rigorous." You read a lot wider in political theory, and a lot deeper in political philosophy. And of course you tend to have stronger knowledge of the other aspects of the respect disciplines.

[trudeau]

Thanks for that! I'm anticipating a possible admission into both disciplines at a school where the respective departments are pretty highly respected. This distinction has been dominating my existence for the past 3 weeks...

BTW. Which schools? UVic, Queens and McGill seem to be the places in Canada for political theory/philosophy.

[v3p011]

BTW. Which schools? UVic, Queens and McGill seem to be the places in Canada for political theory/philosophy.

Social and Political Thought M.A. and Ph.D. at York University; Theory, Culture and Politics M.A. at Trent University.

[Syrah]

UVic for political science, Queen's for philosophy, and UofT for both. All good news except for UofT poli sci, which I am still waiting on.

[trudeau]

... you guys broke me down. I e-mailed UVic to ask what's up.