Dear Colleagues,
It has been suggested that we create a handbook or a pamphlet of posts and articles that address various issues, problems, deficiencies, biases, etc., in the Philosophical Gourmet Report, perhaps with a list of the Advisory Board members and the evaluators as an appendix. The handbook would be organized by topics. The handbook, especially as an e-book, would then be circulated to administrators and faculty at schools with ranked and non-ranked graduate programs. The idea here is quite simple, an old Deweyan one. Publicity is crucial for the well-being of a community. The serious problems and weaknesses of the PGR have not been adequately publicized. So, we publicize them.
You can catch up on much of the latest debate and discussion on Archive of the Meltdown. Also, Richard Heck has a page on his blog, “Discussions of Philosophy Rankings,” which has links to many posts. My posts on the topic can be found on UP@NIGHT. They are listed in the right column. I also have an updated post on New Apps that may be of interest, “An Open Letter to Prospective Evaluators for the 2014-2015 Philosophical Gourmet Report.” There is a discussion in the comments section.
Please feel free to leave comments and reflections on this idea here. Of course you may comment anonymously. Or email me privately with your thoughts and reflections.
Please circulate the link to this post. Let’s see how much interest it generates.
Thank you,
Mitchell
UP@NIGHT 