20100509

哲學與名牌

哈佛大學哲學系今年聘請了一個在俄克拉荷馬大學(University of Oklahoma)剛拿博士的當助理教授,這是絕無僅有的事。我說絕無僅有,不是單指哈佛,而是指所有名氣響噹噹、令畢業生覺得自己頭上有個光環的名牌大學。

俄大是一間不錯的大學,但相信沒有人會認為那是名牌;在眾多大學排名榜中,俄大也很少打入一百名內。在俄大拿的博士,即使是真材實料學問高超,也會被視為不入流;這是世俗眼光看名牌和非名牌的分別,過份簡單化,容易產生偏見,卻又為大眾接受,難以摒除。

哲學講究深度和獨立思考,哲學家應該會超脫這種膚淺的世俗看法吧?可是,看來事實並非如此。只要在網上找一找各名牌大學哲學系的教員資料,便可看到他們幾乎全是名牌大學的博士,而且多是名牌中的名牌。如果再留心一點看,這些教授不但博士是在名校拿,連本科的學位也是,名牌身份沒有半點雜質。還有另一個現象:即使你出身是純正名牌,假如你先在非名牌大學教過幾年,那麼要轉工到名牌大學便很困難。在非名牌大學教過,大概是被看作污點了。(當然,聘請教授不是完全由學系決定,這偏見可能是由上而下;不過,如果情況是哲學家一味順從上意,那也是個問題吧。)

哈佛大學哲學系這次請了個俄大博士,是否就是破除成見?很難說。這位俄大博士的研究專長是西方古代哲學,做這種研究的人不多,在哲學界裏形成了一個比較特殊的小圈子;這位仁兄必定是非常猛料,在這小圈子裏可能早已引起注目,有些風頭,那麼俄大這塊不太亮麗的招牌對他的傷害便大大減低了。要是他依然猛料,專長卻是道德哲學或知識論,要跟成千上百的名牌博士爭一個教席,哈佛仍然不介意他是俄大的,那便不同了。

8 則留言:

  1. 這位仁兄也真是夠猛料,不知他在Top-journal上有幾篇論文!
    你指的“名牌”,是指一般坊間排名,還是指如Philosophical Gourmet Report上ranking?
    (比如,哈佛裏我欽佩的Godfrey-Smith,在Syndey和UC San Diego畢業,但它們好像都在TOP20外)

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  2. CYC,

    我是指一般排名,UC San Diego算是名校。

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  3. My american colleague told me that recently he read a papers about educational background of faculties in the States...

    Apparently, the most significant STATISTICAL determining factor is where one got his / her bachelor degree, not where s/he got his/her PhD...

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  4. RandomCoil,

    That didn't surprise me at all.

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  5. If that is the case, whether he is from University of Oklahoma is not crucial...

    The reason why my colleagues and I (and others) had that conversation was because... there were 7 of us chatting and we realised that only me and another person are from working class (we went to non-prestige colleges).

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  6. RandomCoil,

    //If that is the case, whether he is from University of Oklahoma is not crucial...//

    This conclusion does not follow from the data you referred to. It at best means that the bachelor degree is more important. By the way, the person I mentioned in the article did not get his first degree from a famous university either.

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  7. As part of her job, a friend of mine met with faculty members at one of the top U.S, universities who are on graduate admission committees. The goal is for her to see how the process goes so that she could go back and help undergraduate with their applications. When asked what they look for in recommendation letters, one faculty member said he would look at the names of the faculty and search for their publications. What matter is how many publications the recommender has, not so much what was being said about the applicants.

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  8. I suppose if the letter writer was a big name, they would not even have to look at his/her publication record.

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