There are curretly 31 specialty areas evaluated in the PGR, plus two others (Indian Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy) evaluated in informal consultation with the Board and scholars in the field. (We simply did not get enough respondents to the surveys in those areas.)
Here is the basic question: should there be fewer specialty areas, on the theory that undergraduates have less well-defined interests, or should we leave the list as it is, since it allows students to identify programs, especially programs less highly ranked overall, that would meet their interests?
The 31 areas currently covered are: Philosophy of Language; Philosophy of Mind; Metaphysics; Epistemology; Philosophical Logic; Philosophy of Action (incl. free will); Philosophy of religion; Normative Ethics & Moral Psychology; Metaethics; Political Philosophy; Philosophy of Law; Applied Ethics; Philosophy of Art; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of Biology; Philosophy of Physics; Philosophy of Cognitive Science; Philosophy of Social Science; Decision, Rational Choice and Game Theory; Philosophy of Mathematics; Mathematical Logic; Ancient Philosophy; Medieval Philosophy; Early Modern Philosophy: 17th Century; Early Modern Philosophy: 18th Century (excluding Kant); Kant and German Ideailsm; 19th Century Continental Philosophy after Hegel; American Pragmatism; History of Analytic Philosophy (incl. Wittgenstein); 20th-Century Continental Philosophy; Feminist Philosophy.
These 31 areas are grouped into four broad categories: Metaphysics & Epistemology; Theory of Value; Philosophy of the Sciences and Mathematics; and History of Philosophy. It seems obvious that those categories are far too broad to admit of meaningful evaluation. But a possible restructuring might look like this:
In the M&E family: Phil of Language & Logic; Metaphysics & Epistemology; Philosophy of Mind and Action; Philosophy of Religion.
In the Value Theory family: Ethics; Applied Ethics; Political & Legal Philosophy; Philosophy of Art.
In the Phil of the Sciences: Philosophy of Science (incl. physics, biology, economics, etc.); Philosophy of Mathematics; Decision, Rational Choice & Game Theory.
In History: Ancient Philosophy; Medieval Philosophy; Early Modern Philosophy; Kant; Continental Philosophy; History of Analytic Philosophy.
I myself think this too dramatic a truncation, but I am curious what readers think, or what alternative suggestions they have. Please post only once; comments may take awhile to appear.
