The purpose of graduate education in physical education is proposed to be the“cultivation of rationality.”Rationality is characterized by open-mindedness, the ability to respond to novel situations, and the ability to go beyond past procedures for solving problems. It is suggested that many current graduate programs do not focus on rationality, however, and instead reflect an obsession with developing systematicity in thinking (the ordering of concepts into neat and tidy structures). This commitment to systematicity is identified as a contributing factor in the continued fragmentation of the field as individuals within each specialization adopt their own structures for inquiry. The study of the philospohy of science is proposed as one option for reversing this trend to fragmentation, as it would require graduate students to become more philosophical (reflective) in their thinking even as they become more scientific (extensive).