Can you recommend any good Philosophy of Science postgrad programmes?

Graduate School
1

Hello, I’m a 20 year old in my penultimate year at a British university, taking Human Sciences, which is an interdisciplinary programme where I’ve had the opportunity to study the physical sciences, the social sciences and some of the humanities, namely philosophy, linguistics/philology, politics and history. However, since one can’t really get a deep education in all of that in three years, most people informally choose two disciplines to focus most of their time on, and some choose a lesser discipline as well, although there is ample opportunity to familiarise oneself with most of the disciplines via exploring subdisciplines (i.e. Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Linguistics, Sociobiology, Formal Logic etc.)

Personally, I’ve taken a lot of time to study Philosophy and Psychology, with Biology becoming an increasing focus. I have three disparate career paths in mind, two of which I’m equally interested in, with he third being a “backup” that I’m also passionate about. Those two are Psychoanalysis (either as a PhD Psychologist or a Social Worker) and going into academia in the field of Philosophy of Science, the “backup” is education, as I could go into teaching directly after my BSc after taking a certification exam, and then be a part-time postgraduate student as I work.

This question is regarding the best programmes in the United States for Philosophy of Science. I would like to find a programme with knowledgeable advisors and good research, and even better would be an interdisciplinary/joint degree programme, so that I could have access to the natural sciences faculty as well. Also, this is not a requirement and might be a weird request since Philosophy of Science is considered almost wholly analytical (there are continental philosophers who deal with similar topics, but because of the different outlook on science, the discipline isn’t viewed as it’s own) but I’d like to be in a department that is continental friendly, because much of my own work and writing draws on continental thought and my leanings are on the postmodern/continental side of the “science wars” (put very simply and reductively: science is not an objective reality, it is a social construct) and with the epistemological anarchism of Feyerabend et al.

Can you recommend any good Philosophy of Science postgraduate programmes, or American Philosophy faculties that are active in the area of Philosophy of Science?

I want to return to the United States for a variety of reasons that I would rather not get into.

2

Not sure how it compares to other US programs, but University of Notre Dame has a graduate program in Philosophy of Science.

3

As far as I can tell, in the United States most of these programs are called History & Philosophy of Science. If you search for that, you’ll get better results. The University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University have programs in this area. Berkeley offers it as a concentration that philosophy students can participate in. Stanford has a special program in History and Philosophy of Science, although you would get your PhD in the philosophy department and then get a certificate in the field. The Philosophical Gourmet [has a listing](http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/breakdown.asp) of philosophy programs that have professors in that area. (Scroll down to about one-quarter of a way down the page; the link on the side doesn’t work.)

As a side note - you can’t really be a part-time doctoral student on the side as you teach. You may be able to find an MA program in philosophy that allows you to complete the program part-time, but virtually all good doctoral programs will require full-time study.

And another - if you do choose to go the psychology route and want to conduct or do research into psychoanalysis, much as you are looking specifically for philosophy programs that are strong in a specific subfield, you will want to specifically find clinical or counseling psychology programs that have experts in psychoanalysis on the faculty. Put simply, the influence of psychoanalysis has declined in modern psychology and most programs are teaching different methods, like cognitive-behavioral therapy, and there are definitely some faculties and programs that feel that Freud et al. is kind of outdated and out of touch. I daresay philosophers study Freud far more than actual psychologists do these days.