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Wow, after having seen practically no posts on this website for a while after it was first announced, I gave up on it. Popped in last night, and what a nice surprise to see that it has come to life.

I'm Matt. I study philosophy at Rutgers U., take classes at OAC, etc, etc. And I'm not a fan of writing big introductions, so I'll leave it at that. Hi to anybody who knows me on here, by the way... I see a few familiar names. :-)

One technical question: any way to get automatic updates (pref. by email) of new posts on the forums here? I tend to neglect web-based discussion lists, and this one looks like it'll be worth keeping up on.

- Matt

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Okay. Here goes.

My understanding is that Rutgers is the place to be for metaphysics and epistemology. The problem is that they don't call it that in modern philosophy--it's philosophy of language, philosophy of linguistics, philosophy of mind and language, etc. However, I also understand that, generally speaking, there has been renewed interest in theories of concepts.

I'm wondering how much, if at all, this interest in concepts has penetrated into Rutgers.

I want to study epistemology in grad school, but I'm very afraid of spending all my time parsing symbolic logic.

Also I'm wondering about their Philosophy of Physics, which is also very reknowned. I'm curious as to how much they work with the physicists there, and how much they work with the other epistemologists.

Really, any general thoughts on or knowledge of the program would be appreciated. It's very difficult to get impressions of grad programs.

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Okay. Here goes.

My understanding is that Rutgers is the place to be for metaphysics and epistemology. The problem is that they don't call it that in modern philosophy--it's philosophy of language, philosophy of linguistics, philosophy of mind and language, etc. However, I also understand that, generally speaking, there has been renewed interest in theories of concepts.

I'm wondering how much, if at all, this interest in concepts has penetrated into Rutgers.

I want to study epistemology in grad school, but I'm very afraid of spending all my time parsing symbolic logic.

Also I'm wondering about their Philosophy of Physics, which is also very reknowned. I'm curious as to how much they work with the physicists there, and how much they work with the other epistemologists.

Really, any general thoughts on or knowledge of the program would be appreciated. It's very difficult to get impressions of grad programs.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

My internet just froze and killed the long post I just wrote. I'll try to rewrite it, but I don't have the patience right now to make it as detailed as the first time through.

My understanding is that Rutgers is the place to be for metaphysics and epistemology. The problem is that they don't call it that in modern philosophy--it's philosophy of language, philosophy of linguistics, philosophy of mind and language, etc. However, I also understand that, generally speaking, there has been renewed interest in theories of concepts.

I'm wondering how much, if at all, this interest in concepts has penetrated into Rutgers.

I haven't encountered much of it: most of the classes are fairly standard analytic fare. Justification, foundationalism/coherentism, nitpicking over definitions, etc. But I think if you work with the right people, you'd be able to work on concepts, at least after you'd finished up some initial grad work.

You don't have to worry about spending all your time dealing with symbolic logic. Outside certain classes (notably Phil/Lang), it rarely pops up, and you're certainly not required to use it in your papers if you can be more clear writing in English.

Also I'm wondering about their Philosophy of Physics, which is also very reknowned. I'm curious as to how much they work with the physicists there, and how much they work with the other epistemologists.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about this. I don't even know who teaches these classes. (I'd bet Sider does sometimes, but beyond that, I'm clueless.)

Other than that... I don't know much about the grad program, really. For what it's worth, the grad students I've talked to seem satisfied, except for the problems with the administration that you'll find at any school. If you ask me questions about specific professors I might be able to help you out. I've had classes with Seymour Feldman, Ruth Chang, Brian Loar, Doug Husak, Robert Matthews, and Martha Bolton. Brian Loar does epistemology/philosophy of mind stuff: he's a nice guy and a pretty good teacher, even if he does accept some pretty bad ideas. Robert Matthews taught my Phil/Lang class, which annoyed me so much that I can't even give him an objective evaluation. The other people are probably not going to be doing much that's closely related to your interests. (But take a class on ethics with Ruth Chang if you get a chance. Not only is she really smart and the best professor I've had here, but she's very nice to look at as well.) :D

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