He notes the heavy emphasis on German thinkers, with little coverage of French philosophers (especially French feminists). Noelle MacCaffee made similar points last year (I can’t find the link where she revisited the point, with responses by Brian Leiter).For those not in philosophy, these rankings mean a lot to those applying for grad school and certainly come up in discussions by top departments about recruitment (will it help us go up in the rankings?) and others when seeking funding.
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You folks should have a look at how Leiter is unraveling on this thread over at the New Apps blog:
http://www.newappsblog.com/2011/12/2011-pgr-20th-c-cp-board.html#comments
Leiter thinks that he can occupy the fence between your intellectual traditions and our intellectual traditions. We represent the part of philosophy that is most in tune with science. You represent the part of philosophy that is most in touch with the humanities. We both represent a commitment to keeping philosophy in serious contact with the rest of academia. Join us, oh sisters and brothers from the more humanistic side of the academy, in toppling the PGR, which we can both recognize as little more than a concession to the bean-counting mentality that is threatening to destroy the academy.
By: Bubbles of Sunnyvale on December 18, 2011
at 4:58 pm