Philosophy Undergrad Interested in PolSci PHD

[rowlandbeatrix]

Dear All, 

I am a currently a junior Philosophy major at Reed College in Portland Oregon. I am extremely passionate about philosophy and very happy with my major. That being said, there seems to be a lot of theoretical overlap with the PolSci department as some of my favorite thinkers are Heidegger, Foucault, etc. 

I've taken many  Political science courses at my college, but all of them have been focused exclusively on theory and philosophical ideas (for example, Hegel Marx, Being and Time, Foundations of Foucault, etc.).  

 I want to pursue my Ph.D. in political philosophy and originally was going to apply to Philosophy programs but, I would apply to a Political Science program if it would be a more productive in reaching this goal. 

My questions are essentially: 

1.Should I consider applying to a Political science Ph.D. program? 

2. Does my undergrad major of Philosophy hurt my chances of application in any way? 

 

Thank you! 

 

[StrengthandHonor]

Hey. I assume that if you are applying to a Political Science program, you'll be applying as a Political Theorist. In that case, your undergrad in philosophy should not harm you, as long as you have an SOP and letters that strongly indicate your interests and strengths in the study of political theory. 

I would advise that you do a significant amount of reading in the literature both in political philosophy, and political theory. I think it's reasonably fair to say that political theory has a far higher interest in continental philosophy and historical philosophy, while the field of political philosophy right now is much more focused on analytic philosophy. Read work from both fields, and try to figure out which field is doing work in the area you wish to work in. Chris Blattman (of the Harris School at U Chicago) has told people interested in political economy to find the people doing the work they want to emulate, and then see whether they are political scientists doing poli-econ, or economists doing poli-econ. I'd suggest you do the same. 

All that being said, the job market is probably stronger in political theory than political philosophy. At the very least, as a theorist you will usually be in a department with better funding (we usually would get the same funding offers as our more empirical cohort-mates), and your department probably has better grad placement resources. Additionally, political science departments (generally) have better hiring budgets than philosophy departments, when you're on the job market. 

One more thought from my experience in political theory: it seems that broadly speaking, the field is widely divided between generally right-leaning Straussians who are interested in close reading of historical political thought, and left leaning postmodernists who are interested in critical theory, deconstruction, etc. If you don't fit into (or at least, find yourself marginally aligned with) one of those categories, it may be hard to find a "home" in political theory. 

I hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.