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Moving from political theory (in a Poli Sci dept) to philosophy

Brian Leiter

A PhD graduate student in political theory writes:

I'm an avid reader of your Leiter Reports blog, and I thought I'd contact you with a question closely related to some posts from several years back (though you may have added some updates more recently). You've posted several times in response to questions from prospective graduate students deciding between political philosophy and political theory; I'd be curious, by contrast, to hear your or other philosophers' opinions about switching from political theory to philosophy, or alternatively, completing an additional philosophy Ph.D. after the political science doctorate. To describe my situation briefly: I was accepted to both philosophy and political science programs coming out of my undergrad and opted to go into political theory largely because of my predominant interests in continental thought and the chance to work with [name omitted]. However, now that I'm well into a dissertation, I find my interests have moved much further away from the more institutional considerations of political theorists into deeper questions in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and ethics. My question is whether you're familiar with any situations similar to mine and whether, in your view, it is generally feasible for people to make the move to philosophy from other programs. I imagine, for example, that it may not be uncommon for people to come into philosophy after completing degree programs in cognitive or computer science, but in other situations would the prior doctoral work seem like an upside or a downside, an advantageous background or a lack of commitment?

I would think such a move is feasible, and that for the right philosophy department, the background in political theory (at a leading poli sci department) would be an asset.  But what do readers think?

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13 responses to “Moving from political theory (in a Poli Sci dept) to philosophy”

  1. Zb

    A number of quick thoughts from a Theory candidate (who also does analytic philosophy) on the market:
    1. From where I sit in polsci, the job market is better than philosophy. Theory isn't doing great, but PolSci depts have more money and are generally hiring at a good clip.
    2. It's not clear to me how important it is to have bona fides in one field or the other. So long as you do relevant work and you are familiar with the literature you stand a good shot of being considered for both positions. (At least that's true in polsci.)
    3. A colleague of mine went the other way. Started out in philosophy, and then did a bunch of course work in polsci (though it was not a formal arrangement). He was recently hired by a top PolSci program, though his degree was in philosophy.
    4. All the other candidates for the position he took also had backgrounds in analytic philosophy.
    Make of that what you will.

    BL COMMENT: I think it is true that Poli Sci departments are open to hiring philosophy PhDs who work in political philosophy; the reverse, however, is rarely true (I can't think of a case where a philosophy department hired a poli sci PhD–if anyone knows of such cases, they can note them in the comments).

    Reply
  2. AnonGradStudent

    Interesting questions. I moved from a political science department to a philosophy one during the second year of my PhD (now in my fifth) pretty seamlessly, but I'm not sure it's possible if you're well into the dissertation. You could, of course, talk to your adviser, the DGS of each department, and the grad school bureaucracy and see what they have to say.

    As for the prior doctoral work, I can't imagine that being a disadvantage in applying to philosophy programs, though I'd also be a little surprised if it were advantageous. Curious to see what other readers have to say, as I've pondered going back for a political science PhD if I'm unable to get a philosophy job.

    Reply
  3. Chike Jeffers

    In answer to Brian's question, Melvin Rogers got his Ph.D in Political Science at Yale and, after some time at the University of Virginia in Politics, he was hired by Emory's Philosophy department.

    That being said, he has just accepted a tenured position in Poli Sci and African American Studies at UCLA.

    Reply
  4. Joe Hatfield

    Just a note from the UK (Cambridge, in my case) to point out that the very idea of "political science" is much more of a disputed notion outside the U.S. Many politics departments here purposively omit the term "science" from their names and degree programs on the ground that they conceive of their disciplines in a manner open to non-positivist epistemological stances. Such departments are often very good at making students aware (if they weren't already) of the debates in the philosophy of social science (and phil of science more generally).

    I make this point about the UK (likely it applies to Europe as a whole) only to point out that the original question assumes a dichotomy (phil versus polisci) that fails to hold in all areas of the Anglophone world. I'd imagine a transition from one to the other within or to/from a UK school would be pretty seamless.

    Reply
  5. Anon Swede

    Re: Brian Leiter: Daniela Cutas (Gothenburg/Umeå) is another philosopher with that background. She does applied ethics. My hunch is that, at least here in Sweden, the more applied work is done in a department, the easier it is for a political science PhD to get employed. Having said that, though, anecdotal evidence suggests that philosophers are more highly regarded by political scientists than vice versa. If the anecdotes are reliable, it is probably easier for a philosopher to end up in a political science department than it is for someone with a background in political science to end up in a philosophy department.

    Re: Joe Hatfield: With the caveat that the Swedish word "vetenskap" is extensionally closer to "Wissenschaft" than "science", political science is paradigmatically considered to be a social science for itself here. So I'm afraid your point doesn't generalize to all of Europe.

    Reply
  6. Dale Miller

    Jerry Gaus, at Arizona, has a political theory Ph.D. from Pitt.

    BL COMMENT: I didn't know that, that's surprising, since Jerry Gaus is a very good philosopher indeed.

    Reply
  7. Stephen Krogh

    Brad Lewis, currently at Catholic University in the school of philosophy, has a PhD in government from Notre Dame. I cannot speak to the relevance of that degree to this discussion, but Lewis works in political philosophy, particularly focusing on ancient and medieval thought (he does teach at CUA, after all), we might add him to the list.

    Reply
  8. Christopher Morris

    Brian Barry, I believe, held one or more positions in philosophy depts. And Bob Goodin may have as well. But whatever the facts (!), the two of them were/are at home both in philosophy as well as politics.

    There are differences of style or approach in political theory/philosophy in American politics and philosophy programs. Barry wrote an interesting note about this in the 70s, as I remember, published in Ethics. He argued that many of these differences were determined by the sizes of the depts. In large politics depts a junior prof would have to please the political theory sub-group in order to get tenure; in smaller philosopher depts the junior prof would usually have to impress most of the dept.

    I'm not sure that politics depts in the US are particularly open to hiring philosophy Phds. I can think of very few examples. Stephen Holmes is one (Yale Phd), and of course Philip Pettit. Another is Tom Schwartz, a social choice theorist now at UCLA; his philosophy Phd is from Pitt. But perhaps things are changing.

    BL COMMENT: Leading Poli Sci Depts have been very open to hiring philosophy PhDs: at Princeton, Pettit and Alan Patten; at Harvard, Michael Rosen; at Yale, Seyla Benhabib and Thomas Pogge; at Stanford, Joshua Cohen.

    Reply
  9. Mike Otsuka

    All of Jonathan Quong's degrees are in politics. He now teaches in the philosophy department at USC, though his first job was in the politics department at Manchester.

    My bachelor's degree was in political science, and I took just a couple philosophy courses as an undergraduate. My doctorate was also in politics. In between, I did the BPhil in Philosophy, which, however, consisted of Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and the Political Theories of Hegel and Marx. All of my teaching posts have been in philosophy departments.

    Others are right that there is less of a boundary between politics and philosophy in the UK than in the US. I think Oxford's PPE deserves much of the credit for this. That must be a fairly common undergraduate degree among those teaching political theory or political philosophy in the UK, so many of them will have been shaped by both disciplines.

    BL COMMENT: It should be noted, Mike, that you did the DPhil with G.A. Cohen, who had been in the philosophy department at UCL before taking up the Chichele Professorship in Social & Political Theory at Oxford, which was located in the Politics faculty.

    Reply
  10. grad student

    Cecile Fabre's PhD was in politics and she is now a professor of philosophy at Oxford. However, like an earlier poster said, the distinction seems to be less important in the UK/Europe.

    Reply
  11. Patrick Tomlin

    In the UK, things are possibly a bit more open (though I suspect that the philosophy to politics transition is still easier than the reverse). This comparative ease in changing programme is probably down to two main factors. First, in the UK generally, political theory in politics departments is less distinguishable from political philosophy in philosophy departments. Second, Oxford provides a large proportion of the political theorists and philosophers on the market, and perhaps there the distinction is even less marked. For example, Jerry Cohen was in the politics department, but most would call him a political philosopher rather than theorist. And so most people who worked with Jerry would have a Politics DPhil.

    I believe the following people have gone from an Oxford political theory DPhil to a UK philosophy department: Hugh Lazenby (Glasgow), Ben Saunders (Stirling), Clare Chambers (Cambridge), Serena Olsaretti (previously at Cambridge), Cecile Fabre (Oxford). I think Jon Quong (USC) has a political theory DPhil.

    UK people who have gone in the opposite direction (philosophy to politics) include: my colleagues at Reading, Catriona McKinnon, Brian Feltham (UCL Philosophy), Keith Hyams (Oxford Philosophy); Martin O'Neill (Harvard Philosophy, York Politics); Tom Sinclair (UCL Philosophy, then Manchester Politics, now Oxford Philosophy).

    Reply
  12. Thom Brooks

    I'm another person in the UK who went from a PhD in Philosophy to working in a Politics Department (and now in a Law School).

    It is my view that it is easier to move from Philosophy to Politics than vice versa. Anyone interested in switching across subjects is well advised to publish in their journals: the best way to move to Philosophy (or Politics) is to publish in Philosophy (or Politics) journals. Or both if you want to keep more options open.

    Reply
  13. Tom Hurka

    The Brian Barry article Chris Morris refers to was "Do Neighbors Make Good Fences?" and was published in Political Theory (not Ethics) in 1981. It's hilarious.

    It summarizes the difference between writings on political philosophy by people in philosophy departments and people in poli sci departments by saying the former are short on background and the latter are long on padding. And, as Chris says, it attributes the difference, half tongue-in-cheek, to what it takes to get hired and tenured in the two departments given their differing sizes and structures. To get hired in poli sci you have to impress the theorists, who basically have a veto on theory hires and (this was more true in 1981 than now) equate the subject with the study of the Great Dead Political Philosophers. In philosophy you have to impress the whole department, which means making what everyone will recognize as "neat philosophical points" even though those aren't of great political significance.

    A fabulous article, and by no means entirely out of date.

    Reply

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