Online Report: Harvard Don't Know Much About Philosophy

By DAN ROSENHECK

Crimson Staff Writer

For a University accustomed to being on top, even Harvard's tie for second overall in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings, could be seen as a slap in the face.

But according to a law professor at the University of Texas-Austin, when it comes to philosophy, Harvard is not second-ranked but second-rate.

According to The Philosophical Gourmet Report, a nationwide ranking of academic philosophy departments published on the Internet by UT-Austin's Francis Professor in Law Brian R. Leiter, the keys to philosophical enlightenment no longer correspond with the keys to Harvard Yard.

Harvard has placed an awkward sixth in the country for three straight years, falling short of a three-way tie for third held by the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of Pittsburgh, and Rutgers University, and practically out of sight of the philosophical "Group One" of Princeton University and New York University. And in last year's report, Harvard was the department most often cited as "in decline."