where to study philosophy

Ffor some time now I have been considering going back to school. One area in which I was consdiering going back was in the realm of philosophy. If one was interested in studying philosophy, where would be a good place for them to attend that is not ludicrously far (100s of miles) from the northern-Virginia/DC area? I have seen that GMU has a philosphy department (GMU is practically in my backyard) but only offers to the point of a BA I believe.

ThorsMitersaw:

Ffor some time now I have been considering going back to school. One area in which I was consdiering going back was in the realm of philosophy. If one was interested in studying philosophy, where would be a good place for them to attend that is not ludicrously far (100s of miles) from the northern-Virginia/DC area? I have seen that GMU has a philosphy department (GMU is practically in my backyard) but only offers to the point of a BA I believe.

Eh... Philosophy is one of those things that I think you could do on your own without any college anyways. If you want a "classroom" environment, then just get a bunch of friends together and discuss it.

I wouldn't suggest going to college for philosophy... It's just so entangled with US law - most lawyers take philosophy courses.

Now, in an Anarchist society I belive that lawyers would really just take philosophy and nothing else, but until that day, it seems kind of useless.

ThorsMitersaw:

Ffor some time now I have been considering going back to school. One area in which I was consdiering going back was in the realm of philosophy. If one was interested in studying philosophy, where would be a good place for them to attend that is not ludicrously far (100s of miles) from the northern-Virginia/DC area? I have seen that GMU has a philosphy department (GMU is practically in my backyard) but only offers to the point of a BA I believe.

Unless you're planning on getting a Ph.D. and teaching, it probably would be better to study it on your own. There is a lot of crap that is still taught in philosophy departments.

I don't know about the department as a whole, but I do know a good libertarian teacher/philosopher at the College of New Jersey - James Stacey Taylor. He used to be a professor at my university, LSU. He's approach to ethics is more utilitarian though I believe.

Douglas Rasmussen teaches at St. John's University in Jamaica, New York.

Quite a bit farther away is David Schmidtz, a really good philosopher, teacher and libertarian, at the University of Arizona.

Both of your posts reflect some of my fears and thoughts upon the subject. I only think that I do better at learning most things if I have some formal instruction in addition to what I read on my own. Perhaps though I will continue to try and muddle through on my own in my disorganized manner. Maybe taking a few formal philosophy classes from a local community college would help.

 Study on your own. Philosophy, I feel is a private matter not to be taught. Besides, most people who get a "degree" in philosophy end up working at an ice cream shop or some other job that has nothing to do with it, if they don't end up teaching it.

Does anyone here feel like we are heading back to Guilded Age, as in the middle ages, with giving licenses and degrees for everything. Not even the state, it seems like our entire culture is headed in this direction with college and jobs. So much for the autodidact.

ThorsMitersaw:

Both of your posts reflect some of my fears and thoughts upon the subject. I only think that I do better at learning most things if I have some formal instruction in addition to what I read on my own. Perhaps though I will continue to try and muddle through on my own in my disorganized manner. Maybe taking a few formal philosophy classes from a local community college would help.

Reading commentaries on major philosophical works can give you a sense of that formal instruction without the classroom. For example, an excellent book on Aristotle's Politics is Fred Miller's Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle's Politics. I'd just add Roderick Long's essay "Aristotle's Conception of Freedom" as a necessary amendment to it (the citation is probably in my dissertation research proposal, definitely in my philosophy M.A. thesis).

Andrew:

 Study on your own. Philosophy, I feel is a private matter not to be taught.

How to really philosophize is something that is difficult to teach, especially in a classroom setting. Imparting information to be memorized is mainly what goes on in classrooms.

Andrew:

Does anyone here feel like we are heading back to Guilded Age, as in the middle ages, with giving licenses and degrees for everything. Not even the state, it seems like our entire culture is headed in this direction with college and jobs. So much for the autodidact.

The state is largely responsible for this, if only indirectly. But yes, we're heading down a similar path to the one that Rome took which led to the Dark Ages.

I would suggest learning on your own.

My experience with schooling is that the focus is primarily on study skills. What is emphasized is getting good at homework, tests, essays, exams, time management, etc. So schools churn out people who are good at those skills.

But once you've got that down, then there's not much left to do in the education system. If you're good at studying, then self-teaching is the logical conclusion- you can teach yourself much more efficiently, and without the enormous costs of university.

Like the above comments, if you want to get a PhD and teach, your options are limited to university. Otherwise go with autodidacticism.

 I'll very mildly disagree with the other responses.  Reading and self-study are absolutely essential, and by far the best ways to learn philosophy.  However, if you can find yourself a GOOD teacher, take him.  First, reading the books might end in memorizing anyway, whereas studying with a good teacher or study partner will force you to engage the material.  Second, a good teacher can guide you in what to read, although admittedly you can also get good advice from the people here, especially Plauche.  Most of my philosophy classes were essentially wasted, but I did take some coursework from a few outstanding professors which did a lot for how I learned and studied.  If you can find such a teacher, take every course he offers. 

By the way, I did have the idea a while back to be an informal philosophy tutor.  I advertised but it never really went very far - I do think that kind of thing should exist, though.

I just finished up my philosophy undergraduate degree here at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and I thought the program was incredible (well, the parts on social/political/ethical/economic philosophy were; I don't love the M&E stuff, but not due to any failing of the program, I don't think).  I can't really speak for other programs, but I'd definitely recommend this one. I got to take an economic philosophy course from one of the more important figures in the field (Dr. Dan Hausman), and a philosophy of the social sciences course with him as well; I took political philosophy with a libertarian professor (Dr. Lester Hunt), and got to read and examine Locke, Nozick, Otsuka, and Cohen for class credit;  I got to write my thesis on a libertarian approach to the ethics of climate change with an egalitarian professor (Dr. Harry Brighouse), who was absolutely fantastic to work with because of just how differently we view things; I got to go to free philosophy conferences and lectures, including a brief opportunity to debate with Dr. David Friedman when he came to campus this spring...I could go on, but the point is I had an awesome experience here, and all I had to do was pay up, show up, and work hard.

I guess it's possible that I could have done it on my own.  Maybe.  But it was so much easier to do it here.  It's like training for the Olympics.  Technically, anything you can get from a coach, you can either figure out for yourself or hire someone to do for way less money.  But good luck making that work.  I think if you want to study philosophy -- and I mean really study it, not just memorize the position of one school of thought and think it's the complete gospel truth, no matter what ridiculous positions it commits you to -- there really is no feasible alternative to getting at least some help in an academic setting.  That doesn't mean specifically studying philosophy; Geoffery, for example, is studying political science.  But it's not a coincidence that most important modern philosophers work in academia, or at least have formal educations in philosophy or a related field.

That being said, if you could see yourself being happy doing anything else besides being a professional philosopher, I'd say do that instead.  You pretty much have to be crazy to want to pursue a career in philosophy.  But if you are crazy, then get yourself into school as quickly as possible.

If you're trying to decide where to go, I'd recommend first taking a look at the Philosophical Gourmet, especially the sections where rankings are offered for individual areas of philosophy.  Rankings are inherently shaky, but they're a good starting point.  When you have an idea of some places you might like to go, check out the publications for the faculties.  If you can't find professors in a department that are looking into subjects that you find interesting, you might want to take that into account (though not too much; you'll just be an undergraduate, so most of the better professors' level of knowledge will be sufficient for your purposes, even if they don't specifically focus on the exact area that you're interested in).  Also make sure you like the city, the campus, and the rest of the school.  You'll be spending four years there; don't go somewhere where you'll be miserable.  Hopefully that helps a little bit; if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Will you be pursuing post-graduate studies in the subject? I'm finishing my degree next year, and I'm contemplating whether to go on to become a professional philosopher or to go on with some other subject, such as Law. I'm wondering which unis might offer interesting, quality Masters courses.

-Jon

Most of the best philosophy programs require that you go all the way to a PhD.  But if you're sure that you only want a program with a terminal masters, the rankings are here.