Best places to do metaphilosophy?

[mattcat]

Bit of a random question: are there any grad schools that stand out for doing metaphilosophy (ie. philosophising about the aims and methods of philosophy)? I guess it's a rather unusual area to specialise in...

[maxhgns]

Schools, not really. But there are definitely a few people who do work on meta-philosophy (although I think you'll find it's not really an AOS by itself). Yuri Cath at La Trobe comes to mind, and Richard Double at University College London. Then of course there's meta-ontology and meta-metaphysics, which are concerned with philosophical and metaphysical methodology. Jim Brown at Toronto has done a fair bit of work on that in relation to thought-experiments (a hot topic), Jennifer Nagel (also Toronto) with respect to experimental philosophy and epistemology. Kathrin Koslicki at UAlberta has done a fair bit of work on methodology in metaphysics. Amie Thomasson at Miami has probably done the most comprehensive work on meta-ontology and meta-metaphysics. There's Julian Dodd at Manchester, one of Amie's most prominent critics (and a proponent of revisionism).

 

Probably the best thing to do is to seek out departments strong in metaphysics and epistemology, and to cobble something together that way.

[SamStone]

Who are examples of philosophers that do the work you are talking about? I think Nietzsche, James, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Rorty, Pippin, Anidjar, Burge, and Soames could all be taken as examples of philosophers philosophizing about the aims/methods of philosophy. But all of those figures do it in completely different ways. So what style are you talking about here?