Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Schools, philosophy of science, epistemology
From: RGINZBERG@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Ruth Ginzberg)
Date: 10 Jan 93 11:39:31 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Philosophy Dept., Wesleyan University
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20In-Reply-To: pmsc13sg@UMASSD.EDU's message of 10 Jan 93 01:34:53 GMTLines: 85

In <C0M726.Jo7@umassd.edu> pmsc13sg@UMASSD.EDU writes:

> >
> >  I am currently an undergraduate student of psychology and am
> >interested in exporing the philosophical underpinings of this field
> >(and epistemology in general).  For this reason I am looking for
> >schools, or people, who have developed an expertise in this area.

> 	The mainstream of contemporary philosophy is profoundly nihilist and 
> anti-system despite its technical sophistication and appearance of rationality. 
> The psychological application of this witch's brew can be found in the culture 
> of Weimar Germany or in the "lifestyle" of any drug addict. 

Oh, for Pete's sake!  If this isn't one of the most sweepingly unhelpful
comments I've seen on the net, then I don't know what is.  The poster is an
undergrad wanting to evaluate graduate programs (I take it).  A response like
yours, filled with vagueness, cynicism, hostility and innuendo, but absolutely
no information is supposed to accomplish ... what?

> 	An extreme, radical alternative is Aristotle, the inventor or 
> discoverer of rational system, logic, science, and the science of psychology!  
> A neo-Aristotelian approach is found in Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism 

While you are welcome to express your opinions in favor of Ayn Rand's
objectivism, it is rather irresponsible to imply that nothing else in
philosophy is worth studying.  I'd be fired from my job & ridden out of town on
a rail if I were to suggest that my favorite philosophical approaches were the
only ones worth studying, & I'd deserve it, too.  This attitude is profoundly
ANTI-philosophical. It makes me doubt that you know what philosophical inquiry
is actually all about.  BTW, specialization in Aristotle is NOT rare, nor is is
"radical".  There are many serious Aristotle & neo-Aristotelian scholars in
so-called "mainstream" philosophy departments.  

> 	Most philosophy departments are worthless

You display only your own dogmatism & ignorance in assertions like this.

  but, I believe, Northwestern, 
> Georgetown, and UTexas-Austin specialize in classical realism.

(a) These are all fine universities with quite well respected philosophy
departments.  (b) The poster didn't ASK for refs to departments which
"specialize in classical realism."  This student asked for info about people or
departments which specialize in philosophical underpinnings of psychology, and
epistemology in general.

TO THE ORIGINAL POSTER:

Here's what I suggest to my students who are looking for philosophy graduate
programs, or even undergraduate programs to which they might transfer:

1. What readings or lectures have piqued your interest?  Who wrote them?  Whose
work were they discussing?  Make note of the AUTHORS who are involved in
writing about the philosophical subjects that interest you.

2. Go to DIALOG & do a search for other work by those authors.  Check some of
the articles/books out of the library.  Read them.  Do they interest you?  Bore
you?  Intellectually stimulate you to want to learn more?

3. Chase down some of the bibliographic references you've found to current
journal articles.  Read them.  Read responses to them.  Note where the authors
of such works are coming from (usually you will begin to see a pattern of
people and/or departments which are producing the work that is most interesting
TO YOU).

4. If you really want to be thorough, write to some of these folks.  Tell them
what philosophical work has attracted your interest.  Ask what it would be like
for you to attend their university to study <the sorts of things that interest
you>.  (You may be surprised; some may say "Gee, we have a great group of
students and faculty here doing X;  it would be a good place to come to study
that."  But others may say, "I'm the only one in my department who does X, and
its very hard for students to do X seriously with other members of this
department, because <they don't know much about it; they don't recognize it as
a legitimate subfield; I'm not on speaking terms with any of them; etc., etc.,
etc.>")  Soon you will begin to get a sense of what kind of place YOU'D like to
be at to do YOUR work.

5. Apply to several of those places.

Good luck!


------------------------
Ruth Ginzberg <rginzberg@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Philosophy Department;Wesleyan University;USA
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,rec.arts.sf.written