Requirements and Guidelines for the Graduate Program in Philosophy

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

CREDIT REQUIREMENTS

48 units of graduate-level course work (16 semester courses) are required for the Ph.D. At least 36 units are allotted to one's "major field" (philosophy) and the remainder to one's "minor field" (either philosophy or an outside minor). If the minor is within philosophy, 12 units of course work are required. If it is an outside minor (for example, cognitive science, linguistics, classics, or economics), the number of units is fixed by that program. In addition to course work units, a student needs 18 units of dissertation credit, which are earned in writing the dissertation. There are also minimal residence requirements explained in the Graduate Catalog.

COURSE DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS

To ensure breadth of training, students must pass two graduate-level courses (with a grade of B or better) in each of the following areas of philosophy:

1. Metaphysics and Epistemology (broadly construed) 2. History of Philosophy 3. Ethics and Value Theory (including social, political, and legal philosophy) 4. Logic, Language, and Science

Proposed addition -- ShaughanLavine - 06 Feb 2006:

At least one of the courses taken in areas 1, 3, and 4 must be an integrative course, that is, a course that covers the full scope of the work of a systematic philosopher or school across disciplinary boundaries. That is intended to ensure that students have some exposure to how a broad philosophical view can have fruitful consequences over a range of philosophical areas and disciplines.

There is also a formal requirement, intended to give students formal skills that they will need in pursuing their philosophical research. Students must pass one course to satisfy the formal requirement. A single course can be counted toward at most one distribution requirement, except that a course that satisfies the formal requirement may, in some circumstances, also satisfy one of the other distribution requirements.

At the end of this document is a list of courses that may be taken for each distribution requirement. These are guidelines rather than strict rules. The final decision about whether a given course counts for a requirement is up to the faculty. Unstarred courses under a given heading will usually count toward the requirement in question. Starred courses will sometimes count toward the requirement in question, depending on how the course is taught. Courses not on these lists might also count toward the relevant requirements, depending on their content.

The decision on whether a given course satisfies a given distribution requirement will usually be made by the Director of Graduate Studies, in consultation (where necessary) with the instructor of the course and with faculty members in the relevant fields. One faculty member in each area is designated as a consultant to whom students can direct questions and with whom the Graduate Director will consult in difficult cases. See the end of this document for the current consultants.

There is also a logic competence requirement, requiring that every student must have taken a course in formal or symbolic logic. This may be an undergraduate or graduate course, taken at Arizona or elsewhere. Students who have not taken such a course before enrolling in the graduate program must take at least one class in formal or symbolic logic, or must pass a special examination on the topic. The decision as to whether a student has satisfied this requirement will is made by the Director of Graduate Studies, in consultation with other faculty members where necessary.

SEMINAR REQUIREMENTS:

TRANSFER CREDIT:

Distribution requirements should normally be completed by the end of a
student's sixth semester in residence. The formal and logic competence requirements should be completed by the end of the student's fourth semester. Once these requirements are completed, the student should complete a "Doctoral Plan of Study" form with details on courses taken, obtain signatures from the Department Head and from the Director of Graduate Studies, and submit it to the Graduate College.

COURSES

Graduate courses in philosophy are divided into graduate seminars and
lecture courses. Graduate seminars are numbered Philosophy 596A, 596B, and so on. Their enrolment is restricted to graduate students (in philosophy and possibly other departments), with occasional exceptions at the discretion of the instructor. Graduate lecture courses are numbered Philosophy 5xx. These courses are usually offered simultaneously with an undergraduate course Philosophy 4xx, with common meetings. In many (but not all) such courses there will be a separate graduate student meeting that meets every week or two.

Lecture courses usually meet in the morning or in the afternoon before 3pm, and have two 75-minute meetings or three 50-minute meetings per week, in addition to a possible graduate meeting. Seminars usually meet in the afternoon (Monday-Thursday) at or after 3:30pm, and have one 150-minute meeting or two 75-minute meetings per week, at the discretion of the instructor.

The current practice is that the department offers four seminars per semester, and a number of lecture courses. In the fall of every year, one of the four seminars is a proseminar for first-year students. The proseminar is intended to be an intensive introduction to philosophical methods and tools, as well as to an area of philosophy that may vary from year to year. Enrolment in the proseminar is restricted to first-year students and is mandatory for those students.

In general, lecture courses offer a broad survey of an area of philosophy, and include a greater emphasis on lecturing from the instructor, while seminars are often somewhat deeper and more specialized, and include a greater emphasis on general discussion and on student presentations. However, seminars may sometimes also act as broad survey courses, and faculty members offering seminars are encouraged to devote at least some portion of the seminar to broader and more basic issues in a field, before proceeding to more specialized material.

Students may also occasionally take an independent study course for 1-3 units with a faculty member, by agreement. This will typically involve focused reading in an area of interest, a number of meetings, and a pre-arranged amount of written work.

In a given course, students will usually be assessed on some combination of participation, presentations, and written work. A final grade of A, B, C, D, or E will be assigned by the instructor and submitted to the Graduate College. For internal department purposes, a plus/minus grade (A+, A, A-, and so on) will be assigned and kept in department records. The instructor will also write comments on the student's performance in the course, to be inserted into the student's file. Grading practices vary between faculty members, but generally speaking, a grade of A indicates very good work, while a grade of B or B+ indicates work that is less than fully satisfactory in some significant respect. Grades below B are rare.

At the discretion of the instructor, students may occasionally be granted a grade of "incomplete" (I) in a course. The work for such a course must be completed by a date set by the instructor, and always before the start of the following semester (9:00am on the first day classes). If the work is not completed by this date, the student's internal grade for the class will be automatically converted to an E. If the student completes the work later, this grade may be restored at the instructor's discretion to a maximum of one letter-grade below the grade that the student would have received had the same work been handed in on time. (So the highest possible internal grade in such a case will be B+, and the highest possible external grade will be B). Exceptions to this policy (granted only in special circumstances) require joint approval of the instructor and the Director of Graduate Studies.

Students will usually take three courses per semester, and occasionally four courses (especially when on a fellowship). The graduate college requires that all students who are teaching assistants, research assistants, or on fellowships be enrolled in at least six units per semester. Department policy is that students in the first two years should take at least six courses per year. In the semester of a student's comprehensive examinations, a student may enroll in an independent study course designed especially for preparation for the examinations.

SATISFACTORY PROGRESS

The Philosophy Department regards a minimally satisfactory first year GPA as one that exceeds 3.5 (calculated from internal grades where appropriate, with A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, and so on). For more advanced students, normal progress requires a GPA well in excess of 3.5. The Graduate College requires a minimum grade-point average of 3.0 (based on the official grades submitted to the Graduate College).

Toward the end of every academic year, the faculty conducts a review of graduate student progress. The progress of each graduate student is discussed, and areas of success and concern are isolated. When a student's progress is unsatisfactory, the faculty may vote to remove the student from the philosophy graduate program. After the meeting, the Director of Graduate Students writes a memo to each student (or at least to those in early years of the program) whose progress was discussed, summarizing the discussion. This memo is sent to the student and placed in the student's file.

Students who have not yet passed the prospectus examination should meet with the Director of Graduate Studies at least once per year to discuss their progress and their plans. Students should also feel free to meet with the Director of Graduate Studies at any time to discuss issues that may have arisen, to ask questions, to ask for advice, and so on.

Students have the right to view their files, with the exception of confidential material, and may do so at any time by asking the Graduate Secretary. Students are encouraged to do this, as the file contains teaching evaluations and written assessments of course performance.

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS

To become a candidate for the doctorate, written and oral examinations
must be passed by the student in a major and minor field. For this purpose, the student (in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies) should assemble a committee of four faculty members: two with expertise in the major field; two with expertise in the minor field. Where appropriate, committee members in the major or minor fields may include faculty members from other departments, or occasionally from other institutions.

The fields are selected and delineated in consultation with the committee members and the Director of Graduate Studies. The major field must be a field within philosophy; the minor field may be drawn from another discipline. (Note that these need not be the same as the "major" and "minor" fields for the Ph.D. as a whole.) Fields within philosophy should be broad areas (a rule of thumb is that they be fields that might appear as an area of specialization in Jobs for Philosophers), including but not restricted to: Ancient Greek Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, Early Analytic Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Language, Logic, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mathematics, Ethical Theory, Political Philosophy,
Applied Ethics, and so on. An exam will often cover two or three subareas within one of these fields rather than the whole field. However, the major and minor area must be drawn from different broad fields.

Students should draw up a reading list for each area in consultation with the two committee members from that area. A typical list for an area might include around 4-5 books and 15-20 papers in the major area, and 3-4 books and 12-15 papers in the minor area (with appropriate adjustments in fields with a different balance of books and papers, at a rate of about three papers per book). The initial list that a student presents to committee members might be somewhat shorter, to allow for additions and revisions by those members. Reading lists will often be divided into two or three areas per major field, and two areas per minor field.

The committee members in each area will prepare a written exam in that
area, on the material covered in the reading list. The written exam in the major area will typically be a 4-hour exam in which the student must answer three or four essay questions drawn from a range of choices. The written exam in the minor area will typically be a 3-hour exam in which the student must answer two or three essay questions drawn from a range of choices. These exams will be assessed by the committee members in the relevant area.

If the committee members in each area deem that the student's performance on the written exam is appropriate for an oral exam to proceed, then an oral exam will be held, with all four committee members. This exam will last between two and three hours and will cover the material on the reading lists, with attention both to the student's answers on the written exams and to other topics. After the main portion of the exam, the committee members vote on whether or not the student has passed the preliminary examination as a whole. If there are two or more negative votes, the student does not pass. In such a case, the committee may permit the student to repeat the examination after a period of four months or it may determine that the examination not be repeated, with this latter decision resulting in the termination of the student's eligibility for the degree and the student's removal from the program at the end of the then current semester.

Timing: A student should usually arrange fields, committee members, and reading lists before or during the fourth semester. The exams will usually take place during the fifth semester. Typically, the written exams will take place in the first half of the semester, no more than a month apart from each other, and the oral exam will take place during the second half of the semester, within two months of the written exams. The student needs to file a "Request for Oral Comprehensive Examination" notice with the Graduate College at least one week before the date of the oral exam.

PROSPECTUS EXAMINATION

The prospectus examination is the gateway to the dissertation process. For this examination, the student should approach three faculty members to form a Prospectus Examination committee, with one member designated as committee head. These members will typically be intended to become the student's dissertation committee, with the head of the committee intended to become the student's dissertation advisor, although changes sometimes occur.

The student should submit a prospectus for a complete dissertation to the committee, together with a substantial essay which will normally be intended to become a chapter of the dissertation. If the committee deems it appropriate, an oral examination will be conducted. This examination is intended partly to provide early feedback on how best to pursue the dissertation, and partly to certify that the paper and the student's performance demonstrate a level of skill appropriate to the attainment of the doctorate. The prospectus examination will usually start with a brief presentation by the student (of a length anywhere from 15 minutes to one hour, as determined by the committee), followed by questions and comments from committee members, and will take one to three hours altogether.

Timing: The student should approach prospective committee members,
including especially a prospective committee head, before or during the sixth semester. The prospectus itself should be written by early in the seventh semester, and the examination should take place sometime during the seventh semester. After passing the prospectus examination, the student should submit a "Advancement to Candidacy" form to the Graduate College.

DISSERTATION

After passing the prospectus examination, the student should form a dissertation committee, with a committee head who acts as the student's main advisor. This will often, but not always, have the same members as the prospectus examination committee. The student will usually show dissertation material to committee members as it is produced, and consult regularly with committee members on how to proceed with and improve the dissertation. Once the student produces a complete draft, this will be submitted to committee members, often leading to a process of revision.

Once committee members deem the dissertation appropriate for examination, an oral examination (dissertation defense) will be held. The oral examination may start with a brief presentation by the candidate, followed by questions from committee members. At the end of the examination, the committee may decide that the student has passed, or has not passed, or has passed pending certain revisions.

Timing: A complete draft of the dissertation should be submitted by the ninth semester. The oral examination should take place during the tenth semester. The student should submit an "Application for Oral Defense Examination" form to the Graduate College at least three weeks before the date of the examination. Students who do not pass the oral examination within four semesters after completing the prospectus examination may lose their status as degree seeking students and be re-classified as non-degree seeking students.

PAPERWORK

There are four official forms that must be filled out at various stages of the program and submitted to the Graduate College:

• Application for Oral Comprehensive Examination (1 week before oral exam)
• Doctoral Plan of Study (after completing distribution requirements)
• Advancement to Candidacy (after passing prospectus exam)
• Application for Oral Defense Examination (3 weeks before final oral exam)

These forms are available online at:

http://grad.admin.arizona.edu/degreecert/forms.html

GRADUATE COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS

The requirements listed here recapitulate some of the Graduate College
requirements, and supplement them on occasion, but they do not replace
those requirements, and there are Graduate College requirements that are not mentioned here. For further details on those requirements, see the Graduate Catalog. These requirements and other relevant information are also available online at:

http://grad.admin.arizona.edu/degreecert/degcert.html

THE M.A. DEGREE

Graduate students in philosophy may earn a master's degree on the way to the Ph.D. 30 units of course work in philosophy (10 courses) are required. Students must pass (with a grade of B or better) at least one course in each of the first three areas of distribution explained in the separately provided departmental policies pertaining to the Ph.D., and they must fulfill the formal requirements as specified in the departmental policies. At least half of a student's courses must be at the seminar level. Also, a successful oral defense of a substantial written work is required for the master's degree. (For an ongoing student, the prospectus examination will usually fulfil this requirement.)

FUNDING

Students admitted to the program are usually guaranteed five years of funding, contingent on satisfactory academic progress and barring unusual financial exigencies. In most semesters, this funding takes the form of a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA). Occasionally the funding may take the form of a Graduate Research Assistantship (assisting a faculty member with research) or a fellowship. Out-of-state fees are waived for students with GTAs, but students are usually responsible for paying in-state fees. In 2000-01, a Graduate Teaching Assistantship paid $6801 per semester, and included health benefits in addition. In-state fees were about $1100 per semester, assuming nine units of coursework.

TEACHING

A student with a GTA will most often act as a teaching assistant in a course taught by a faculty member. This will usually involve teaching up to three one-hour discussion sections per week (with about 30 students each), grading papers and examinations, and other duties. It may sometimes involve grading but no direct teaching. There are some opportunities for a GTA to teach a course independently. In this case, the GTA is usually responsible for designing a syllabus (which must be approved by a faculty member), lecturing, designing paper topics and examinations, and grading papers and examinations. There are also some opportunities for additional independent teaching during the summer and winter sessions. GTAs teaching independently will consult with a faculty member

The teaching of a GTA will be observed and evaluated by a faculty member at least once per semester. When the GTA is assisting in a course taught by a faculty member, that faculty member will do the evaluation. When a GTA is teaching independently, a faculty member will be assigned for this purpose. GTA's are entitled to two evaluations in each of their first two semesters as a GTA, at their discretion. GTAs are also entitled to two evaluations per semester late in their graduate career, with the intent of having an informed teaching letter for their dossiers. GTAs are evaluated either once or twice the first time they teach independently, at the discretion of the faculty member making the first evaluation. After each evaluation, the faculty member will file a written report which will be placed in the student's file. If a student's teaching has not yet been evaluated at a point well into the semester, the student should request an evaluation.

CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS

Students are very strongly encouraged to (i) attend philosophical conferences, (ii) present their work at philosophical conferences, and (iii) submit their work to philosophical journals. These activities are valuable both for a student's philosophical development and for establishing a professional record in preparation for the job market.

Conference attendance: Conferences are held quite regularly in Tucson: for example, there is a colloquium in Ancient Philosophy each February, a major conference on consciousness every second April, and regular workshops in the philosophy of physics. Students are encouraged to take part in these and other meetings. There are also three annual meetings of the American Philosophical Association, and many more specialized meetings.

Conference presentation: Students are strongly encouraged to submit their work to APA meetings and other philosophical conferences. Students whose work is accepted for presentation at a conference will receive at least $100 from the department in travel funds, and should also apply to the Graduate College to receive further funding.

Journal submission: Students are strongly encouraged to submit their work to professional journals. A rule of thumb is that in any given year, a student should expect to take at least one paper (perhaps the best paper written for a class) and develop it so that it can be submitted to a journal.

PLACEMENT

Each October, the American Philosophical Association circulates a document, "Jobs for Philosophers", with notices of advertised jobs in the USA, Canada, and some other countries. There are typically 100-200 jobs advertised, often requiring specific or constrained areas of specialization (in research) or areas of competence (in teaching). Candidates apply for these jobs in October through May, and the first main round of interviews (usually for 6-16 candidates per job) takes place at the APA conference on the east coast in late December. This is typically followed by a round of campus visits for 1-6 candidates per position, after which job offers are extended. Most tenure-track positions are advertised in this round. After this, there are further issues of Jobs for Philosophers (containing more non-tenure-track positions), for which there are often interviews at the Pacific and Central meetings of the APA.

As a rough rule of thumb, students should expect to apply for jobs in a given year if their dissertation is at least half complete, and if they expect to complete it within the current academic year (or in the summer at the latest). Students who are job candidates will work closely with the Placement Director in compiling their application dossiers and preparing for interviews. An application will typically include a cover letter, CV, a writing sample, a number of letters of recommendation from faculty members, and materials related to teaching. Before the APA meeting, mock interviews will be conducted, and students will often give a practice talk. The Placement Director will travel to the APA to assist job candidates there.

DEPARTMENT LIFE

All students are expected to attend all department colloquia, which usually take place on Friday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:30pm. Students are encouraged to attend the department's coffee hour, which takes place in the department library (Social Sciences 140) from 3-3:30pm every weekday.

COURSES FOR DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS

The following is a list of courses that may be taken for each distribution requirement. These are guidelines rather than strict rules. The final decision about whether a given course counts for a requirement is up to the faculty. Unstarred courses under a given heading will usually count toward the requirement in question. Starred courses will sometimes count toward the requirement in question, depending on how the course is taught. Courses not on these lists might also count toward the relevant requirements, depending on their content. Consult with the Director of Graduate Studies and with the area consultants to be sure.

In 2004-05, the Director of Graduate Studies is Richard Healey (rhealey@uREMOVE.arizona.edu). The area consultants are: Terry Horgan (M&E), Julia Annas (History), David Schmidtz (Ethics), Shaughan Lavine
(Logic/Language/Science).

1. Metaphysics and Epistemology

PhiL540. Metaphysics
PhiL541. Theory of Knowledge
PhiL550. Philosophy of Mind
PhiL551. Philosophy and Psychology
* PhiL555. Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence
* PhiL567. Early Analytic Philosophy
PhiL596B. Metaphysics
PhiL596C. Epistemology
PhiL596K. Philosophy of Mind
* PhiL596V. Philosophy and Cognitive Science

2. History of Philosophy

PhiL510A. History of Moral and Political Philosophy I
PhiL510B. History of Moral and Political Philosophy II
PhiL512. Readings in Greek Philosophy
PhiL570. Greek Philosophy
PhiL571A. Rationalism and Empiricism
PhiL571B. Rationalism and Empiricism
PhiL572A. Ancient Philosophy: Plato
PhiL572B. Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle
PhiL596P. History of Philosophy: Ancient
PhiL596Q. History of Philosophy: Recent

3. Ethics and Value Theory

* PhiL524. Philosophy of Social Sciences
PhiL525. Philosophical Issues in Feminism
PhiL530A. Ethical Theory
PhiL530B. Ethical Theory
* PhiL533. Aesthetics
PhiL534. Social and Political Philosophy
PhiL538A. Philosophy of Law
PhiL596A. Ethics
PhiL596E. Aesthetics
PhiL596F. Social and Political Philosophy
PhiL596G. Philosophy of Law

4. Logic, Language, and Science

PhiL501A. Symbolic Logic I
PhiL501B. Symbolic Logic II
PhiL502. Mathematical Logic
PhiL503. Foundations of Mathematics
PhiL516. Philosophy of Mathematics
PhiL520. Philosophy of Science
PhiL521. Philosophy of Biological Science
PhiL522. Linguistic Semantics and Lexicology
PhiL526. Philosophical Problems of Space, Time and Motion
PhiL527. Philosophy of Physical Science
* PhiL532. Psychology of Language
PhiL563. Philosophy of Language
PhiL564. Formal Semantics
PhiL565. Pragmatics
* PhiL567. Early Analytic Philosophy
PhiL596H. Philosophy of Physical Science
PhiL596L. Philosophy of Language
PhiL596S. Philosophy of Mathematics
* PhiL596V. Philosophy and Cognitive Science

Formal Requirement

PhiL501A Symbolic Logic
PhiL501B Symbolic Logic
* PhiL516 Philosophy of Mathematics
* PhiL526 Philosophical Problems of Space, Time and Motion
* PhiL527 Philosophy of Physical Science
PhiL564 Formal Semantics

To satisfy the formal requirement, students may also take any course of a formal nature at an advanced level by another department that is approved by the Graduate Director and a faculty member in whose area the student, or any course in the Greek language approved by the Graduate Director in consultation with a faculty member working in the area of ancient Greek philosophy.

MINOR REQUIREMENTS

The Department approved the following governing graduate minors for students not majoring in Philosophy:

• A philosophy minor for a graduate student from outside the philosophy department requires that the graduate student take four graduate courses in philosophy (12 units) in any area subject to the approval of the director of graduate studies.
• Transfer credits will not be accepted for the minor.
• A comprehensive examination may be required, at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies, in an area of philosophy chosen by the student with the approval of the Director.

1. The comprehensive exam would have both a written and an oral part
2. The student would have two faculty on the comprehensive examination committee, each from the philosophy department
3. They would help the student draw up a reading list in the student's desired field in philosophy.
4. The written part would be a three hour exam taken by the student at a time of his or her choosing on the subject agreed upon with the members of the committee.
5. The oral examination would consist in the two philosophy department committee members examining the student on the basis of the written answers, exam questions not answered by the student, or on other issues connected with the agreed upon reading list.
6. The oral part of the exam may take place in conjunction with an oral exam in the major field if this should occur.