Advising

College

• You should immediately buy this inexpensive book: The Thinking Students Guide to College

  • RIC students can access it for free here: ebrary

Majoring in Philosophy

• Why study philosophy? Find out here https://sites.google.com/site/whystudyphilosophy/

• If you are only convinced by presos: http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwphi/Media/Docs/PHIL/WhatisPhilosophyGoodFor2.pdf

• Not sure how to break it to your parents? This might help: http://healthcareethicscanada.blogspot.com/2008/12/philosophy-degrees-and-famous-people.html

• The value of the major is apparent to some: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06philosophy.html

• Philosophy majors top the GRE charts on both the verbal and the writing sections: http://pleasandexcuses.com/2012/09/06/philosophy-major/

• USC has a good page outlining some reasons to study philosophy: http://dornsife.usc.edu/phil/undergraduate/

• Understand the RIC requirements for a BA in philosophy: http://www.ric.edu/philosophy/program_ba.php

Studying Philosophy

• The Comprehensible Philosophy Dictionary will come in handy: http://ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/philosophy-dictionary-glossary/

  • as will Pryor's brief glossary: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/vocab/glossary.html

• Pryor's tips for reading philosophy are helpful: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.html

• The LPSG provides excellent, somewhat dated bibliographies for many areas of philosophy: The London Philosophy Study Guide

• Familiarize yourself with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/

• Explore PhilPapers, the best philosophy database: http://philpapers.org/

  • Note: Configure your browser: http://ric.libguides.com/philpapers

  • Note: If the RIC library doesn't have access to the journal you need, go to Brown. RIC students can use the Rock.

• The Society for the Philosophy of Action has some useful links: http://www.philosophyofaction.com/Encyclopedia-Entries.html

Writing Philosophy Papers

• Read Pryor's excellent guide to writing philosophy papers: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html

• Huemer's writing guide is useful: http://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/writing.htm

• Portmore offers some useful, detailed advice: http://www.public.asu.edu/~dportmor/tips.pdf

• You don't want to be a candidate for the bad writing contest: http://www.denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm

Philosophy Courses Online

• Kagan's "Death" course is by far one of the best available: http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/death

• Adamson's short historical lectures are definitely worth listening to: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/philosophy/people/academic/adamsonp/hoppodcast.html

• The most famous is Michael Sandel's course "Justice": http://www.justiceharvard.org/

  • Let's just hope it doesn't become compulsory: http://chronicle.com/article/Professors-at-San-Jose-State/138941/

Philosophy Blogs and Podcasts

• Philosophy TV features sophisticated discussions of important philosophical issues: http://philostv.com/

• There are dozens of excellent short interviews on Philosophy Bites: http://philosophybites.com/

• The PEA Soup Blog is a great place for ethics: http://peasoup.typepad.com/

• If you are interested in free will, add Flickers of Freedom to your RSS reader: http://agencyandresponsibility.typepad.com/

• The controversial Leiter Reports is an important source of professional news: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/

Graduate School

• Thinking about graduate school? Read Huemer's warning: http://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/grad.htm

• Familiarize yourself with the Gourmet Report: http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/

• The "Pluralist's Guide" provides a very different view: http://pluralistsguide.org/

  • Note: Beware of the extremely problematic "climate for women" section. Many think that it's worse than useless.

• Make sure to read Leiter's perspective on graduate study: http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/perspective.asp

• Read Leiter's advice on applying: http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/applyingto.asp

• Schwitzgebel has an instructive thread here: http://schwitzsplintersunderblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/applying-to-phd-programs-in-philosophy.html

  • and more on personal statements here: http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2012/05/applying-to-phd-programs-in-philosophy.html

• Learn about the horrors of the academic job market: http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/

  • You might end up on food stamps: http://chronicle.com/article/From-Graduate-School-to/131795/

• Some very bad wizards discuss the issue here: http://verybadwizards.com/episodes/21

• And before you apply, make sure that we have "the talk."