This past spring, I had the opportunity to read a paper by a young and promising master's student in philosophy at CU-Boulder on the subject of the ethics of lying. The experience and the change evident within the field in over the past ten or twenty years caused my eyes to notice "2 Philosophies, Separated by a Common Langauge" - a nod to Twain - by Julian Baggini, editor of "The Philosophers Magazine" (July 25, 2003, "The Chronicle of Higher Education"). I have also been more influenced by British philosophers than Americans myself, both in the 80s and since. Baggini notes that Britain follows many of the changes initiated here, but with marked differences in results. For example, he quotes British philosopher of science David Papineau saying "where Continental philosophy sets out to rival science, and North American philosophy aims to cooperate with it, contemporary British philosophy sits uneasily on the fence . . . . British philosophy marginalizes science far more than North American philosophy does." Here common ground is sought, whereas in Britain, the autonomy of the humanities is more jealously guarded. Another salient difference is in how new approaches to doing philosophy and multiculturalism are dealt with. In Britiain, women and minority groups aren't ghettoized in the name of pluralism - instead they are assimilated within the discipline itself. For instance, Baggini notes, the editors of the _Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy_, both women, "cannot be labeled 'feminist philosophers.' Rather, they are philosophers period, who have incorporated feminist insights into their philosophy and are keen that others do the same." Not for fad following, activism, and agit-prop are our cousins, the Brits! Instead such trendiness is eschewed or else viewed with sceptical good sense. Ironically, says Baggini, the very culture that originated melting-pot assimilationism practices it far less than the Brits - another reason to respect British philosophy above the American academic form, I say. Finally, Baggini identifies how this institutional difference leads to interesting consequences in how philsophers interact with the nonacademic world. He contrasts Britain's participative example with America's activist model by pointing to Mary Warnock and Anthony Quinton who both serve in the House of Lords, versus the 1997 amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme court - by Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Noozick, John Rawls and others - concerning the right to assisited suicide. In Britain, this just isn't done! (well, almost! I recall an obit in The Economist this summer on an exception to the rule.) So - for those several students on the board seeking DL master's in philosophy, when it comes to making your selections, these are some interesting differences to keep in mind. --Orson
First I'd like to say "welcome back" to Orson who has apparently been enjoying something of a hiatus from degreeinfo. Next, I'd like to say that The Philosophers Magazine is really quite good. I held a subscription for three years before I let it lapse, due only to a lack of reading time. It's not very expensive, is highly informative and very British. This is not a bad thing, but as Orson has stated, does represent a distinct division in the field of Philosophy. Next, I'd like to point out, that both Thomas Nagel and Ronald Dworkin (both at NYU and both at the absolute pinacle of present day philosophy) took BA degrees at Oxford University. Now they both already had BA's from US schools (Cornell and Harvard, respectively) but it's plain to see that British philosophy had it's opportunity to influence these two and failed (a small joke). I confess that I haven't read a lot of Dworkin but Nagel's books, The View From Nowhere, Other Minds, The Possibility of Altruism, and Mortal Questions are well beyond good and illustrate the reason that he is one of the few Philosophers in the world today who actually sells books to people other than matriculated philosophy students. I'd also like to remind people that there's a great DL opportunity for those interested in philosophy to be found at Pathways To Philosophy http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/ptpdlp/. It's run out of the University of Sheffield (England) by Geofrey Klempner, PhD, a great guy and a great teacher. Orson! You old troll! The "Off Topics" forum has been positively empty in your absence! Jack
