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Philosophy of Law
"This field is very broad, and it is highly
unusual for a philosopher of law to do work in all, or even many ,
of the pertinent areas. Topics that fall within philosophy of law include,
for example: the nature of law and the relationship between law and morality;
the theory of legal reasoning and adjudication; the duty to obey the law;
the justification of punishment; the nature of responsibility, moral and
legal; theories of liberty and justice; the philosophical foundations of
the substantive branches of law (criminal, law, property, torts, contracts,
international law, etc.); theories of legislation and legal interpretation;
the methodology of legal philosophy; and the intersection between the preceding
areas and issues and themes in ethics, political philosophy, philosophy
of language, metaphysics, philosophy of action, etc. Students should pay
particular attention to how well faculty interests correspond with student
interests-keeping in mind, of course, that your interests may change and
develop in significant ways during the course of your graduate education."
--Brian Leiter ( Texas )
Philosophy of Art/Aesthetics
"Especially at the graduate research level, philosophy
of art/aesthetics is an unusually uncentered field, with a number of the
best-known people working from distinct arts--notably music, painting,
film, literary fiction--or from historical--notably Kantian--contexts."
--Patrick Maynard ( Western Ontario )
Early Modern Philosophy: 17 th and 18 th
Century
"Early modern philosophy, by its nature, includes
a very wide range of subdisciplines (epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy
of religion, ethics, political philosophy, just to name a few). Since graduate
faculty working in early modern philosophy often specialize fairly exclusively
in some of these subdisciplines rather than others, students interested
in pursuing early modern philosophy should investigate to ensure a suitable
overlap between their own subdisciplinary interests and those of the departments
that they are considering. (For example, a student with very strong interests
in early modern political philosophy should investigate more specifically
whether there are faculty available who also have early modern political
philosophy as a serious interest.) At the same time, however, students
should bear in mind that many of the major figures in the early modern
period were system builders who thought that there were important connections
between, (for example) their views in metaphysics and epistemology and
their views in moral and political philosophy; and for this reason, the
understanding of their systems may suffer if one focuses only on their
views in one or another subdiscipline. Some people working in early modern
philosophy take a more comprehensive view of their specialty, and that
may suit some students."
--Edwin Curley ( Michigan ) and Don Garrett (NYU)
Continental Philosophy of the 19 th and 20
th Centuries
"People's conception of what the right approach to
take to Continental philosophy varies more than in more sedate and mainstream
areas of philosophy. Even if a potential advisor is a specialist in just
the area a student wants, s/he may have ideas about the subject-matter
that make it difficult to work with a student who sees things differently.
Some scholars engage argumentatively and often quite critically with Continental
philosophers; others treat the figures more reverentially. Some treat Continental
philosophy in isolation from other parts of philosophy (Continental philosophy
is "ghettoized" in some programs); others brings styles and methods of
argument associated with Anglophone philosophy to bear on Continental philosophers.
Students should try to read some work by potential faculty advisors to
get a sense of their approach. Of course, don't assume that everyone who
takes a particular approach is incapable of seeing the merits of alternatives;
but be aware that that is a danger. Given the variety of approaches and
attitudes towards Continental philosophy, a plurality of potential advisors
in a department can certainly be an advantage.
You should also consider carefully what departments
offer outside Continental philosophy. There are institutional reasons for
this (departments for the most part require students to complete a general
education in philosophy in the initial years of graduate study, and once
on the job market, it will behoove you to have "areas of competence" beyond
Continental philosophy), but intellectual ones too: certain areas of philosophy-for
example, Kant, ancient philosophy, moral and political philosophy, aesthetics,
parts of metaphysics and epistemology, among others-are complementary to
major themes and currents in Continental philosophy."
--Brian Leiter ( Texas ) and Michael Rosen ( Oxford )
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