Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

2021 PGR Preview: Biggest Declines in the Overall Rankings for the U.S. Top 50

We noted the big increases (5 or more spots) in the U.S. top 50 a couple of weeks back; below the fold are the schools that dropped 5 or more spots in the 2021 PGR compared to 2017:

PGR specialties where there were not enough evaluators to rank programs based on rounded means

This year, those areas were:   American pragmatism, feminist philosophy, philosophy of art, philosophy of race, philosophy of social science.  Each had five or fewer evaluators.  (In each case, the problem was the yield on invited evaluators in terms of participants.)  Programs in these fields were broken into two groups (based on the scores submitted):  Highly Recommended, and Recommended.  So, for example, in feminist philosophy, the "highly recommended" schools for 2021 are:  Cambridge University, City University of New York Graduate Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 in Medieval Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in medieval philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

2021 PGR Preview: Top 5 Programs in Early Modern Philosophy: 18th Century

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in early modern  philosophy:  18th Century (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 3 Programs in Applied Ethics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 3 programs in applied ethics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 6 Programs in Mathematical Logic

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 6 programs in mathematical logic (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 11 in Metaethics & Moral Psychology

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 11 programs in metaethics and moral psychology (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 9 Programs in Decision, Rational Choice, & Game Theory

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 9 programs in decision, rational choice, and game theory (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 Programs in 20th-Century Continental Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in 20th-century Continental philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 Programs in Philosophy of Biology

MOVING TO FRONT--ROUNDED MEAN SCORES WERE OMITTED ORIGINALLY

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in philosophy of biology (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 10 Programs in Normative Ethics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 10 programs in normative ethics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 Programs in Philosophy of Religion

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in philosophy of religion (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 7 Programs in Philosophy of Cognitive Science

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 7 programs in philosophy of cognitive science (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 8 Programs in Metaphysics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 8 programs in metaphysics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 14 Programs in Philosophy of Law

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 14 programs in philosophy of law (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 11 Programs in Philosophical Logic

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 11 programs in philosophical logic (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 6 Programs in 19th-Century Continental Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 6 programs in 19th-Century Continental philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 8 in Early Modern Philosophy: 17th Century

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 8 programs in Early Moern Philosophy:  17th Century (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 Programs in Philosophy of Mathematics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in philosophy of mathematics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 9 Programs in Political Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 9 programs in political philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 4 in Philosophy of Action

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 4 programs in philosophy of action (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 13 Programs in Kant

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 13 programs for Kant (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 Programs in Philosophy of Physics

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 5 programs in philosophy of physics (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 9 Programs in Ancient Philosophy

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 9 programs in ancient philosophy (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 16 Programs in Philosophy of Language

Continuing with the specialty previews, below the fold are the top 16 in philosophy of language (with median and mode scores in parentheses after each school's name):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 6 Programs in Philosophy of Mind

This week, I'll be posting previews of the results of the specialty rankings from the latest PGR surveys; once again, full results will be online at the official site around mid-December.

Here are the top six programs in philosophy of mind (after each school's name, in parentheses, are the median and mode scores as well):

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 5 U.K. Programs

Continuing with previews of some of the results of the 2021 PGR surveys, here are the top five U.K. programs:

More PGR previews coming

I'll have the top 5 overall in the UK later today or on the weekend, and then expect to have from Professor Pynes some of the specialty/subfield rankings by next week, and I'll once again share the top groups in several of those.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 2 Canadian Programs

Continuing with previews of some of the results of the 2021 PGR surveys, the top two Canadian programs are the University of Toronto (#1 in Canada, mean score of 4.0, which would be just behind Michigan and Yale on the U.S. scale, and just ahead of Harvard, MIT, Berkeley et al.) and the University of British Columbia (#2 in Canada, mean score of 3.0, which would be #27 on the US scale).  Perhaps most notable is that Toronto is now solidly in the Anglophone top 10 (outside the US, only Oxford is stronger), and it is closing in on the U.S. top five.

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 3 Australasian Programs

Continuing with previews of some of the results of the 2021 PGR surveys, here are the top 3 Australsian programs (the full report will rank the top 5 programs in Australasia):

Rank	School	Mean score	Where the school would rank on the U.S. scale
1	Australian National University	3.4	22
2	University of Sydney	3.3	24
3	Australian Catholic University/Dianoia Institute	3.1	25

PGR 2021 Preview: Top 15 U.S. Programs (plus biggest upward movement)

Professor Pynes has shared the overall faculty ratings with me, and I will share portions of them in the coming days.   The full results will, hopefully, be online at the usual site by mid-December.

Here are the top 15 programs in the U.S. according to the 2021 PGR surveys:

Annals of unreliable data: "student ratings" of philosophy PhD programs

MOVING TO FRONT FROM OCTOBER 8--UPDATED

This data was recently pointed out to me.  Apparently, the response rate to the surveys sent out was only 10%, which is remarkably low.   Many years ago, the PGR tried to survey student opinion, and here's what happened:  for most programs, only a few people responded, and they were almost all really angry about their program; for other programs, the department rallied their happy students to respond en masse and praise the program.  In other words, it quickly became clear the data was unrepresentative and worthless.  This looks to be the same.  (Of course, as I've emphasized for literally a quarter-century now, admitted PhD students must talk to current students to figure out what the situation really is at a program, and regardless of how good or bad the "student ratings" are.)

More useful is this data on job placement from the same source.  It covers the period 2012-2016, so is a bit dated.  Since job placement changes with changes in faculty quality (as we've seen in years past with, e.g., Rutgers, NYU and, more recently, Southern California), this is certainly a case where past performance does not guarantee future returns!  (The students securing jobs in this study would have been choosing graduate programs circa 2005-2010.)  (For concerns about this jobs data, see an earlier discussion.)

UPDATE:   A reader points out that the APDA folks have now taken the garbage data on student responses and produced a "ranking."  (It also lists the so-called "job placement" rate, which is calculated in a tendentious way that will mislead, rather than inform.)  Some of the programs that got favorable responses from (some unspecified number of) students do have good reputations for having a congenial and supportive environment for students (some do not), but students would be well-advised to talk to current students at any program they are considering, whether it is listed here or not.

2021 Philosophical Gourmet Report previews coming later this week

Professor Pynes tells me that more than 200 philosophers participated in this year's surveys, and the results are now being processed and organized.  I expect to have some previews of some of the results later this week.

PGR survey: the final 36 hours

The survey closes tomorrow, Thursday, November 4, at 11:59 pm Mountain time.  Professor Pynes reports that there are almost 200 completed surveys now, and several dozen still in process.  Those completing the surveys since Monday include Rachel Barney (Toronto), Victor Caston (Michigan), Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers), Cian Dorr (NYU), Richard Bradley (LSE), Lisa Downing (Ohio State), Christopher Bobonich (Stanford), Michael Rosen (Harvard), Edwin McCann (USC), Michael Rescorla (UCLA), Joseph Schear (Oxford), Justin Clarke-Doane (Columbia), and Samir Okasha (Bristol), among many others.

PGR deadline extended 72 hours

There's been a flurry of new responses since the update less than 48 hours ago, and since dozens of folks are still trying to finish, Professor Pynes tells me he will extend the deadline for PGR survey submissions 72 hours, until Thursday, November 4  at 11:59 pm Mountain time.  Among the philosophers who completed the surveys since the last update are Mitzi Lee (Colorado), Brian Leftow (Rutgers), John Doris (Cornell), Roger Crisp (Oxford), Ernest Sosa (Rutgers), Katja Vogt (Columbia), Timothy Williamson (Oxford), Christopher Shields (Notre Dame), Scott Soames (USC), Peter van Inwagen (Duke), Elinor Mason (UC Santa Barbara), Wesley Holliday (Berkeley), and Becko Copenhaver (Wash U/St. Louis), among many others.

PGR surveys scheduled to close this Monday, Nov. 1....

...at 11:59 pm Mountain time.  So if you've been procrastinating on your invitation, now is the time to complete the survey, and join the list of evaluators that have already completed the surveys, including Ted Sider, Brian Skyrms, David Enoch, Hanna Pickard, Cheryl Misak, John Hawthorne, David Wallace, Verity Harte, Shelly Kagan, Paul Guyer, Allen Wood, Lauren Ross, Al Mele, Ian Rumfitt, David Schmidtz, Jim Joyce, Jill North, Jaimie Dreier, Steven Crowell, Johann  Frick, Ian Phillips, Amanda Greene, Lee Braver, Alan Nelson, Eric Schwitzgebel, Justin Tiwald, Peter Carruthers, Lara Buchak, Daniel Stoljar, and many others!

Applying to PhD programs: how one leading PhD program looks at applications

Philosopher Alex Guerrero (Rutgers) shares some useful information, most of which rings true to me. 

(One additional note, regarding applicants with publications in good journals:  Professor Guerrero tells me on FB that about 5-8% of applicants to Rutgers have publications, but many of those are coming out of terminal MA programs or transferring from other PhD programs.  You do not need publications to be admitted to an excellent PhD program like Rutgers!  I've written in recent years for several students who were admitted to top five PhD programs, and none of them had publications in good philosophy journals; they did, of course, have strong academic records and good writing samples!)

Comments are open for philosophy faculty who want to add anything to Professor Guerrero's advice; signed comments only (full name and valid email address).

PGR surveys, reminder

Professor Pynes asked me to remind those who took the surveys in 2014 or 2017 of the following:  "University systems have become far more aggressive in blocking external emails," especially those with embedded links.  Professor Pynes asks that "folks who have participated in the past, who haven't gotten an invitation, but want to participate [should] contact me directly at CA-Pynes@wiu.edu.  I can send a link back via my .edu email and it should make it through."  

The 2021 survey is currently scheduled to close on Monday, November 1 at 11:59 pm Mountain time in the U.S. 

PGR surveys update

PGR surveys went out only about ten days ago, and Professor Pynes tells me there are already more than 150 philosophers who have completed or are in process of completing the survey.  Professor Pynes also tells me, however, that, "University systems have become far more aggressive in blocking external emails," especially those with embedded links.  Professor Pynes asks that "folks who have participated in the past, who haven't gotten an invitation, but want to participate [should] contact me directly at CA-Pynes@wiu.edu.  I can send a link back via my .edu email and it should make it through."   People who participated in 2017 or 2014 would all have received invitations this time around.  Do check your spam filters too!

Books with advice about the dissertation stage of a humanities PhD?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM OCTOBER 14--MANY INTERESTING SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS, MORE WELCOME

Adam Patterson, a PhD student in philosophy at Syracuse University, writes:

I was wondering if you wouldn't mind putting the following question to your readers: what are some good books that are about (and meant to help with) the dissertation phases of a humanities Ph.D.? I'm looking for recommendations, which might be useful to others in a similar position as me.

I'm in the dark about his; comments are open for suggestions.  Please do try to say something about the book (or article) you're recommending.

Draft faculty lists (FINAL draft) for ALL Departments for the 2021 PGR

MOVING TO FRONT--TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY FOR FEEDBACK/CORRECTIONS

Professor Christopher Pynes, co-editor of the PGR, has shared with me the FINAL draft of the faculty lists for the 2021 PGR, on which he welcomes feedback not later than September 27 (his contact information is on the draft, and please direct all questions and comments to him):  Download PGR faculty fall 2021 ALL Departments 18September2021_V5.  Only faculty in the departments should email Professor Pynes about changes that need to be made.   The faculty lists aim to include those with a tenure home in the philosophy department, with all others involved in training graduate students listed as "cognate" faculty.  "Part-time" faculty are half time, unless otherwise noted.

Note that some programs have been added to the faculty lists for purposes of the 2021 survey.  And a reminder that the editors have, for this new survey, decided to only note with an asterisk faculty over the age of 75 in the fall following the report (so fall 2022).  There has been a clear change in retirement patterns over the last decade, so that faculty who are still teaching at 70 are mostly still teaching at 75, but those still teaching at 75 are rarely teaching at 80.  So being 75 is far more relevant now than merely being 70,which seems to me right.

Professor Pynes tells me that the plan is to launch the survey around October 1, and that it will run for approximately three weeks.  Initial results will be posted here starting in the second or third week of November.

Blast from the past: what are "cognate faculty" for PGR purposes?

Back in 2014, but timely again.  Professor Pynes asked me to share this, in light of his current efforts to finalize the faculty lists for the 2021 PGR.

Philosophy of rhinos?

Philosopher Craig Callender (UC San Diego) suggested to me that this category should be added to the PGR; I assured him I'd raise it with Professors Brogaard and Pynes!  The suggestion did remind me of an old essay by my colleague (now Judge) Frank Easterbrook on why there was no course on "The Law of the Horse."

Draft faculty lists for UK, Canadian, and Australasian departments for 2021 PGR

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY

Professor Christopher Pynes, co-editor of the PGR, has now shared with me the draft faculty lists for Anglophone departments outside the U.S. for the 2021 PGR, on which he welcomes feedback ASAP (his contact information is on the draft, and please direct all questions and comments to him):   Download PGR faculty lists non-US Departments 19August2021.   Only faculty in the departments should email Professor Pynes about changes that need to be made.   The faculty lists aim to include those with a tenure home in the philosophy department, with all others involved in training graduate students listed as "cognate" faculty.  "Part-time" faculty are half time, unless otherwise noted.  See the other details in the prior post about the draft US faculty lists.

Please also note that decisions have not yet been taken on what additional programs to include in the 2021 PGR:  the aim is to include programs that might make it into the U.S. top 50, the U.K. top 15, and the Canadian and Australasian top 5s.

Ranked philosophy departments that have no tenure-stream faculty specializing in the Continental traditions in philosophy after Kant

As philosophy departments increasingly hire specialists in currently trendy but niche areas like philosophy of race and gender (but never class), it remains remarkable how many departments currently do not have any tenure-stream faculty specializing in one of the most important periods of Western philosophy (but also hugely influential in non-Western traditions), that centered in Germany after Kant, but also reflected in other Continental European countries in the 19th- and 20th-century, especially France.  This, of course, puts the lie to the claim that Anglophone departments are "departments of Western philosophy," or "departments of European and American philosophy."  After considerable progress in the last forty years, it looks like Anglophone departments are now sliding backwards in terms of narrowness, even though I'm happy to bet that Schopenhauer and Marx and Foucault will be of interest in one hundred years, in a way that, say, the metaphysics of grounding will not.

UChicago's MA programs in humanities and social sciences

Students thinking about these programs ought to read this.  Students wanting to continue on for a PhD in philosophy would generally be much better off at one of the good terminal MA programs in philosophy.

(Thanks to Chris Morris for the pointer.)

Percentage of tenure-stream faculty who are female in PhD programs in philosophy increased about 40% since 2004...

(MOVING TO FRONT FROM JULY 22--SOME CORRECTIONS TO THE ADDENDUM)

...with some variation depending on the caliber of the program:  top analytically-oriented departments saw significant increases (18% of tenure-stream faculty were female in 2004, now 26% are), but still do not have as high a percentage of female faculty as programs in the SPEP universe of nominally "Continental"-oriented departments.   Since the "analytic" departments identify more closely with math and the natural sciences, it's not wholly surprising that female representation is more like what we find in those latter fields; by contrast, the SPEP departments tend to be more closely allied with humanities fields like English, which have higher proportions of female representation in the faculty ranks.  Given current hiring trends, and the pattern of recent retirements (overwhelmingly men), I expect female representation in tenure-stream philosophy positions will continue to increase.

ADDENDUM:  Regarding recent retirements (i.e., since the 2017 PGR),there were 37 retirements, phased retirements, or announced impending retirements, of which 7 were women, and 30 men.  The full list is below the fold:

2020-21 Update for U.S. schools for the 2017 Philosophical Gourmet Report

MOVING TO FRONT from May 26, 2021, UPDATED (MOST RECENT:  9/2/2021)--ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 24, 2020 (recent updates [retirements] to Columbia, Cornell, Wash U/St. Louis).

Since the 2020-21 PGR has been delayed, this is a summary of changes at the tenured (or almost tenured) ranks at roughly the top 50 PhD programs in the U.S. since the 2017 Philosophical Gourmet Report; more precisely, these are changes that were not reflected in the faculty lists evaluators saw for the 2017 PGR surveys (some moves that weren't official until 2018 were reflected in the faculty lists for the 2017 surveys).  (Please e-mail me any corrections or additions, thanks.) 

At the end, I give a rough guesstimate of the new rankings in light of these changes if surveys were done this fall.

New York University (#1 in 2017 PGR):  Lost Jim Pryor (epistemology) to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Richard Foley (epistemology) and Beatrice Longuenesse (Kant, post-Kantian Continental philosophy), both of whom retired (or are about to retire), and David Velleman (ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of action), who also retired and took up a Research Professorship at Johns Hopkins University.  Will probably remain #1 despite these significant losses.

Rutgers University, New Brunswick (#2 in 2017 PGR): Losing Anthony Gillies (philosophy of language, epistemology) to the University of Arizona.  Hired Karen Bennett (metaphysics) from Cornell, Derrick Darby (social & political philosophy, philosophy of race) from Michigan, Nir Eyal (bioethics) from the Harvard School of Public Health, Michael Glanzberg (philosophical logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics) from Northwestern University, Brian Leftow (philosophy of religion, medieval philosophy) from Oxford University, and Michael Otsuka (political philosophy, ethics) from the LSE.  Daniel Hausman (philosophy of social science, ethics), who has retired at Wisconsin, has accepted a six-year appointment with the new Rutgers bioethics center, that will also include regular teaching in philosophy for the next six years.  Rutgers was already one of the very top programs in both metaphysics and philosophy of language, and will now be close to tops in philosophy of religion as well and a good choice for philosophy of race and also bioethics (with Frances Kamm, in addition to Eyal).  These appointments largely play to strengths, but will close the gap with #1 NYU somewhat (NYU's big advantage in terms of the overall rankings has been its broader coverage of philosophy, especially history of ancient and modern philosophy, including the post-Kantian Continental traditions).

Princeton University (#3 in 2017 PGR):  Lost Johann Frick (moral & politcal philosophy) to Berkeley and Alexander Nehamas (ancient philosophy, Nietzsche, aesthetics) to retirement; hired Lara Buchak (decision, game & rational theory) from the University of California, Berkeley and Andrew Chignell (Kant, philosophy of religion) (primary appointments in Religion and Center for Human Values) from the University of Pennsylvania.  Also added junior lateral Una Stojnic (philosophy of language, philosophical logic) from Columbia University.  Should remain squarely in the top three.

PGR Update

Philosophers Berit Brogaard (Miami) and Christopher Pynes (Western Illinois), editors of the PGR, asked me to share the following:

We are working to have a 2021-2022 report available for later this year.  The timeline for the survey isn't fixed yet, but the plan is for it to be early in the fall.  If folks have specific questions, they can email the editors.

Schools with the *most* philosophy majors and the highest percentage of philosophy majors among undergraduates

Fascinating data, courtesy of Professor Schwitzgebel.