In our March "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
I'm currently a 2L in law school with an undergraduate background in philosophy. I'm preparing to apply to PhD programs next year, and I am hopeful to get clarity on a couple components of the application.
First, I've done a fair bit of work in law school under a law professor with doctorate in philosophy, who has nonetheless never had an appointment in a philosophy department. They can write me quite a strong recommendation, and they've seen me plenty in philosophical (eg workshop) settings. Would one nonetheless advise against soliciting a recommendation from this professor on the grounds that they are not a philosophy professor? My other two recommenders would be from faculty with appointments in philosophy.
Second, lots of the scholarship I both reading and writing engages philosophy with an eye toward its legal application/relevance. To what degree is it strategic to emphasize this in my application? I can imagine that some scholars will see this as less serious, even though I am deeply committed to improving my philosophical skillset.
Third and relatedly, I have various papers written in law school that exemplify the kind of scholarship I enjoy. I certainly do some real philosophy in these papers, but perhaps not as much as in the "straight" philosophy papers I wrote in college. Nonetheless, I think these law papers are quite a bit more interesting than most of what I wrote in college. I wonder what you all make of the merits or demerits of using a paper that engages with law, not just philosophy, as a writing sample. On the one hand, a recent PhD grad suggested it might result in some self-selection of programs that are well-suited to my desires. On the other hand, I fear it might make me look less interested in philosophy, which is neither my goal nor a reflection or reality.
Hmm, good questions. I don't see any reason why the OP shouldn't get a letter from their law professor, especially if they are applying to philosophy PhD programs with the aim of doing work in social/political/legal philosophy. With respect to the second two questions, I guess I think it is hard to say much without knowing more details. It would be good to know which kinds of topics the OP is reading and writing on, so I'd encourage the OP to share more in the comments section below. In lieu of that, I guess my suggestion would be for them to approach some philosophy profs with the research they've been doing to get their impressions on whether they should use it/play it up in their PhD program applications or focus on more straight-up philosophy papers.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?
Leave a Reply