1. In order to write a PhD thesis on #SanskritPhilosophy, you need to know #Sanskrit
2. Sanskrit is hard: You need a strong motivation to learn it, the kind of motivation undergrads rarely have!
How do we lose this catch-22 problem, assuming that grad school is ≤6 ys? 1/5
2. Sanskrit is hard: You need a strong motivation to learn it, the kind of motivation undergrads rarely have!
How do we lose this catch-22 problem, assuming that grad school is ≤6 ys? 1/5
A. Only admit to PhD programs in #SanskritPhilosophy students who know Sanskrit already (e.g., young Indian students who learnt it at school or very motivated undergrads) 2/5
B. Admit group A and very motivated and talented people who will start learning Skt full time in the first 2 years of grad school and continue half time throughout grad school and reach a decent level by the end. 3/5
C. Admit group A, group B and students who will do the same as group B but, being slightly less talented/having less time/…, will not be able to cover untranslated texts for their PhD thesis, and will work primarily on translations, 4/5
but will learn Sanskrit meanwhile, so as to be able to do groundbreaking work thereafter. What do you think? Comments are welcome also by people having the same problem with Classical Chinese, Ancient Greek etc. 5/5
May I ask @James_A_Benn how he deals with the issue (in the case of classical Chinese)?
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