Gourmet Philosophy
Debra Necochea
The Philosophical Gourmet Report (also known as the Leiter Report or PGR), founded by philosophy and law professor Brian Leiter and now edited by philosophy professors Berit Brogaard and Christopher Pynes, is a ranking of graduate programs in philosophy in the English-speaking world.[1][2]
The "Gourmet" Report ranking was created in response to the Gourman Report, and is based on a survey of philosophers who are nominated as evaluators by the report's advisory board. Its purpose is to provide guidance to prospective PhD students, particularly those students who intend to pursue a professional career in academic philosophy.[3] The report first appeared on the web in 1996; it is currently published and distributed by Blackwell.
In 1989, while he was a graduate student, Leiter made a subjective list of what he believed to be the top 25 graduate philosophy programs in the United States, which came to be the PGR.[4] The PGR was described by David L. Kirp in a 2003 New York Times op-ed as "the bible for prospective [philosophy] graduate students."[5] Carlin Romano, in America the Philosophical (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013), referred to the PGR rankings as "often-criticized" and "biased towards mainstream analytic departments".[6]
In 2002, 175 philosophers signed an open letter calling on Leiter to stop producing the PGR.[7] In fall 2014, over 600 philosophers signed a petition to boycott the PGR. The petition was organized by some philosophers at the University of British Columbia to protest what they called a "derogatory and intimidating" e-mail sent by Leiter to one of their colleagues. Leiter claimed the recipient had threatened him.[4] Twenty-four of the 56 members of the advisory board of the PGR recommended he relinquish control over the report's management.[4] In response, Leiter appointed Berit Brogaard, a philosophy professor at the University of Miami, as co-editor for the 2014 report and agreed to step down as editor of subsequent editions.[8] Leiter subsequently appointed Christopher Pynes of Western Illinois University as co-editor of future editions.
In the past, concerns have been raised about the methodology of the PGR (see some of the links in this post). It is unclear whether the current report has been improved in any of these regards. (Comments on this from those in the know, including the current PGR editors, are welcome.)
I am so glad that the most recent rankings of a law professor at the University of Chicago has finally come out! I will now know that my alma mater sucks, and that comparative and Asian philosophy is junk. But, I expected nothing less. Why does the philosophical community even pay any attention to this claptrap, at all? Serious question.
I agree about the speciality rankings being more useful than the general ranking. I still think the rule about not ranking your own Ph.D institution is a good one, but I can see the other side of that, especially in cases in which, as you say, sufficient time has passed (which it often will have).
I think it is a pity that people decline to rank. The more people take part, the more useful PGR as a source of info for potential grad students. Ideally, I think about three times as many as do now should do it.
In my experience, the PGR allows all students to discover things about departments and programs that would otherwise be known only to students from more elite programs or with well-connected and professionally active mentors. In this sense it plays an equalizing role, despite lots of claims to the contrary. And it is this sense that is most important, since its central role is guiding prospective grad students.
The PGR is either a useful tool for a broken machine or a useless tool for a broken machine. Philosophy will waste away (rather quickly) if it continues to be conducted as a hyper-specialized practice within the walls of bourgeois institutions.
It seems like this system could lead to a situation in which higher prestige programs from regions with many high prestige programs are left off (the way that teams with better records are left off of playoff rosters because they are in better conferences). Likewise, it seems like we would want to know what considerations go into deciding whether a program is among the top of its region or not. The point of the survey is to figure out what the top programs are, but those deciding which programs to evaluate must already know what the top programs are because they make sure to only evaluate them.
The more food I experienced at Greens & Vines the more I craved it. I know this was completely connected to the freshness of the raw ingredients as well as her incredible culinary technique. The Zucchini Linguini dish also captured me, along with several other menu items. Creamy, fresh in the real and true meaning of the word- so unbelievably tangy, savory and rich. This was my introduction to raw vegan gourmet and it has left an incredible impact on not only my perception of raw food but my view of food in general.
Fast forward to 2004 and the beginning of our vegan journey. I went shopping for vegan cookbooks. But nothing. There were vegetarian books that included dairy and seafood. So I started using those books replacing dairy with olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, or just water and the condensation of veggies. I refused to eat bland overcooked food,. We were the consummate foodies and wine connoisseurs.
Istarted a garden planting stuff I like to eat, veggies for saladslike Swiss chard, arugula, curly kale, green lettuces, collardgreens, shiso red and green, spearmint, chocolate mint, garlic andonion chives, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, myer lemon tree, dwarfapple banana tree, two lilikoi (passion fruit) vines, jalapeno andlong peppers, tomatoes, two red rose bushes and one white, elderflower tree, long squash & zucchini, both of which have notfruited.
Sylvia: Whenever I travel, I take numerous photos of the food I eat. I think about the dishes I most appreciate and they seem to be the ones that are raw or almost with the dish not being so cluttered. On a recent trip to Sydney, Australia, there was a restaurant called Bodhi, and we went twice to enjoy their vegan, gluten free dumplings. There was a great cafe in the Hunter Valley, vineyards that made great vegan meals too.
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While this is still my passion and focus, I have adapted my food philosophy about eating and have added to it a bit this year. Eating mindfully, paying attention to what your body needs and wants, your mindset, thoughts and self care are keys to successful weight loss.
Recently I purchased a flour mill and have started grinding my own flour, so you will probably see some great whole grain bread recipes soon!
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Our department offers opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate study in Philosophy. The undergraduate major, minor, and graduate programs provide an intellectually rigorous program of study in a supportive environment. The two principal educational goals of the philosophy programs are (1) to sharpen skills in critical thinking, analytical reading and writing, problem-solving, and clear and logical thinking, and (2) to teach students to probe questions that are foundational to the physical, life, and social sciences, the humanities, and the arts (i.e., the liberal arts) including questions about the basic concepts of mind, matter, and humanity. These programs provide a foundation for a wide variety of future careers and intellectual pursuits.
The department is home to the Applied Ethics Forum, and affiliated with the Center For Medieval and Renaissance Studies. It has previously hosted the Pacific Division Meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy and the California Conference in Early Modern Philosophy.
2Leiter apparently takes some satisfaction in the fact that the link to the original site has been removed from the Harvard philosophy department's website. I removed it, before handing the site over to its new maintainer, since I knew the link was about to go dead. (Try visiting emerson.fas.harvard.edu. The machine that used to have that URL now lives at frege.brown.edu.)
3Leiter says he didn't make any changes in response to criticisms of the Report. I'll leave it to others to speculate about whether those criticisms might have had some effect via other routes, such as via members of the Advisory Board who thought some of the criticisms had some merit but who expressed them more gently than I did. (If I had it to do over, I'd be a lot more gentle.)
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