Degree Requirements

The Ph.D. program in philosophy is composed of the following requirements:

Below is an outline of the requirement details for the degree and the standards of progress. You may also download full requirements in our student handbook as well as a proposed timeline. Faculty and students should consult the student handbook for any questions about degree requirements and the handbook is the principal, overriding document we consult for the PhD degree.

Ph.D. Requirements

Coursework Requirements

Credits
The Graduate School requires a total of 72 hours of credit (formal coursework plus registered research hours) for the Ph.D. Within this 72 credit hours, the philosophy department requires students to complete 47 credit hours of coursework. Graduate students are required to complete at least three three-credit courses each semester, from among those courses approved by the department for credit toward the Ph.D., for each of the first five semesters. During the first fall semester, students are also required to take a two-credit proseminar focusing on research and teaching. Therefore, by the end of the fifth semester students will have taken a minimum of 47 credits of course work, with at least 11 credits in the first semester and 9 credits in each of the following four semesters.

After completing coursework, students will enroll in 9 hours of PHIL 8999: Non-Candidate Research and PHIL 9999: Ph.D. Dissertation Research each semester until they have earned 72 credit hours. Once students have sufficient credits, students will continue registering for 0 credit hours of PHIL 9999: Ph.D. Dissertation Research each semester to maintain active student status until graduation.

Course Distribution
Students will take at least five seminars in the history of philosophy and at least five seminars in topical areas of philosophy, with the additional stipulation that students must take seminars from at least three different categories in each. The topical area and historical categories are below, and the categorization of each graduate seminar in any given semester will be designated on the departmental course schedule.

Topical Area Categories:

T1. Mind and Language
T2. Ethics, Politics, and Aesthetics
T3. Metaphysics and Epistemology
T4. Race, Gender, Identity
T5. Contemporary Philosophical Movements

Historical Categories:

H1. Ancient Philosophy
H2. Medieval Philosophy
H3. Modern Philosophy
H4. 19th Century Philosophy
H5. 20th Century Philosophy
H6. Trans-era History of Philosophy

Instructor Distribution
By the end of the fifth semester, graduate students must have taken seminars from at least eight different tenured or tenure-track faculty in the philosophy department.

A student must earn a grade of B or higher in each course counted toward the 47 hours. Grades in the A range are the norm for graduate students, while grades in the B range are the exception. If a student accumulates two grades in the B range, they will need to meet with the DGS to discuss their status.

Students enrolling in Philosophy 8999: Non-Candidate Research and Philosophy 9999: Ph.D. Dissertation Research will be assigned S/U grades, in accordance with the Graduate School’s policy:

“One U grade requires consultation between the student and the research advisor; a second U grade triggers a locally defined program-level intervention process involving (at least) the student, the research advisor, the student’s thesis or dissertation committee and the DGS; and a third U grade leads to de-matriculation. These steps are triggered by the accumulation of U grades, not simply U grades in succession. Each U represents approximately one-half of one academic year of unsatisfactory progress. No credit hours are awarded for an enrollment that earns a grade of U.”

Return to top

Logic Requirement

All graduate students must satisfy the department’s logic requirement in one of two ways:

By passing a departmental logic exam, or
By receiving a “B” or better in PHIL 3003: Formal Logic & Applications. PHIL 3003 is offered only in the fall semester. Students with no or minimal training in logic are strongly encouraged to audit PHIL 3003 in their first semester. The logic requirement must be satisfied by the end of the third semester. If students wish to formally audit the logic course, they must submit the Permission to Audit form. The form requires original signatures from the student and instructor. The form must be submitted to the department during the first week of classes and submitted to the Graduate School by the tenth day of classes.

The logic exam and coursework will cover the following three areas and will require a demonstration of competence at a level sufficient to teach an introductory symbolic logic course:

Informal concepts of logic;
Translation into symbolic notation for both propositional and predicate logic; and
Natural deduction proofs for both propositional and predicate logic.

Students must take the logic exam by the end of the first semester and must pass the logic exam by the end of the third semester.

PHIL 3003: Formal Logic & Applications does not qualify for graduate credit and so does not count toward the minimum of 47 credits students must accumulate by the end of the fifth semester.

Return to top

Foreign Language Requirement

All graduate students must satisfy the department’s foreign language requirement by passing a departmental exam that tests for competence in an approved foreign language. The timed translation exam will be blind-reviewed and graded by faculty (typically but not necessarily in the philosophy department) with special competence in the given foreign language. The exam will consist of the students translating into English:

A text (selected by the faculty member administering the exam, in consultation with and approval by the DGS) by a single philosopher (selected by the student), and;
A second text (selected by the faculty member administering the exam, in consultation with and approval by the DGS) by a different philosopher (selected by the faculty member).

During the exam, students may use only a hard-copy dictionary. The translation exam will be marked pass or fail; passing it requires a demonstration of competence as measured by quality and quantity of translation. Students must first take the foreign language competence exam by September 1 of the third semester and must pass the exam by April 15 of the fourth semester.

Return to top

Field Exam Requirement

Rationale for the Exam

Progress towards the PhD involves selecting a field of specialization within the discipline in which one’s dissertation topic will reside. The field of specialization will reflect the categories recognized in the broader discipline as standard “Areas of Specialization” (AOS). The selected field will be the focus of a Field Exam (FE), which includes both a written focus statement and an oral examination to be conducted in the 6th semester by an appointed three-person committee of Philosophy Department faculty.

Departmental Reading List

After declaring a field of specialization in consultation with the DGS, students will access the departmental reading list for their selected field. The departmental reading lists, composed of roughly 40 sources (including books and articles), are developed by departmental faculty with the relevant expertise, and reflect a baseline lingua franca within the AOS, rather than a substantive judgment about what is best or most important in the field. The reading lists represent the rudiments within the field – the materials that those working in the field expect everyone else in the field to know. Mastery of the materials on the departmental reading list provides the foundation against which the more specific research for the dissertation can be built.

Students will devote the summer of their second year in the program to the departmental reading list in their chosen field.

Fifth Semester DGS Consultation and Forming of FE Committee

In the first two weeks of the 5th semester, each student will have a consultation meeting with the DGS. During this consultation, the DGS, working with the department chair, will appoint an FE committee composed of three Philosophy faculty members with the relevant expertise, identifying one as the FE Committee Chair. Students must arrange to meet with the entire FE Committee at least once during the fall semester to discuss their progress with the departmental reading list. By the close of the 5th semester, students are expected to have completed all coursework and to have read all of the materials contained in the departmental reading list of their chosen field.

The Focus Statement

Beginning early in the 6th semester, the student will work with their FE Committee Chair to develop a “Focus Statement” identifying the topic, issue, problem, or debate within the student’s field on which the student intends to write a dissertation. The Focus Statement should be roughly 5000 words, reflecting an engagement with the current state-of-play regarding its topic. The Focus Statement need not propose a novel thesis, but it should (a) present a survey of the current dialectical terrain within which the student intends to work, and (b) establish that this is philosophically rich terrain for the student’s dissertation by showing that there are one or more important unresolved problems or lacunas in this terrain that the student could reasonably be expected to resolve or fill within the scope of their dissertation. The Focus Statement must therefore demonstrate both a command of its topic adequate for someone beginning to formulate a dissertation project, and that the dialectical terrain presented is fertile ground for philosophical intervention and development.

The Focus Statement will normally require the student to master specialized materials that go beyond the department reading list for their field. The Focus Statement must include a bibliography of any such material. It is expected that the Focus Statement will serve as the preliminary basis for the early part of the student’s dissertation prospectus.

The Focus Statement must be approved by the FE Committee Chair and distributed to the FE Committee and DGS by February 15th of the 6th semester.

The Examination

The FE is an oral examination conducted by the FE Committee. The FE will test the student’s command of the materials on the department reading list, as well as any additional materials invoked in the student’s Focus Statement.

The purpose of the FE is twofold. First, it aims to help the student sharpen their mastery of the rudiments within their chosen field. Second, it aims to help the student sharpen their command of the topic identified in the Focus Statement, so that they could more successfully begin formulating a dissertation topic.

The FE must be conducted before Spring Break.

Typically, a student will appoint the internal members of their Dissertation Committee shortly following the passing of their FE. There is no expectation that the Dissertation Committee and the FE Committee are composed of the same members, although there can be overlap between the two committees. The FE Committee is appointed by the department, whereas students form their dissertation committees guided by advice from faculty.

Return to top

Dissertation Prospectus Process and Dissertation Requirements

Advancing to Candidacy

Admission to the Philosophy PhD Program does not imply admission to candidacy for the PhD. To be admitted to PhD candidacy, the student must satisfy departmental requirements, and the last of these is to compose and orally defend a dissertation prospectus. Once students have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus, they are admitted to PhD candidacy and have “All But Dissertation” (ABD) status. In the language of the Graduate School, the oral defense of the dissertation prospectus is the “Qualifying Exam.”

The Prospectus

The dissertation prospectus must be written under the supervision of a regular, full-time member of the Vanderbilt Philosophy Department, who will presumably serve as the dissertation director. It is a succinct statement of the problem, related literature, procedure, method of research, primary or secondary sources, as well as an indication of the contribution the dissertation will make to philosophy. A prospectus must be clearly and concisely written, and it should reflect the student’s capacity to do original research and complete the project.

The Dissertation Committee

Before a dissertation prospectus can be defended, the student must formally appoint a dissertation committee. The dissertation committee is appointed by the Graduate School on the advice of the DGS. The committee consists of not fewer than four members. Three of the members must be graduate faculty from within (“internal to”) the Vanderbilt Philosophy Department, one of who serves also as the Dissertation Director and Committee Chair; a fourth “external” member must come from outside the Philosophy Department. The “external” committee member may be an appropriate academic from outside of Vanderbilt and needs to be approved by the DGS and Graduate School. Only faculty with primary appointments in the Philosophy Department are eligible to serve as the dissertation committee chair.

The Qualifying Examination (Dissertation Prospectus Defense)

The final version of the dissertation prospectus must be distributed to all members of the dissertation committee well in advance – typically at least one month – of the Qualifying Exam. It should reflect prior consultation, though not necessarily agreement, with each member of the committee. Students generally take the Qualifying Exam at the end of the 6th semester or at the beginning of the 7th semester. The Qualifying Exam must be passed by September 30th of the 7th semester.

ABD Status

Once a student has successfully defended a dissertation prospectus and submitted all required graduate school paperwork, the student achieves “ABD” status and is authorized to begin writing their dissertation.

Dissertation

The Dissertation The final step towards earning the PhD is writing and orally defending a PhD dissertation. A dissertation in Philosophy is a systematic work that advances a clear, original thesis regarding a philosophical topic, engages with contemporary scholarship related to that topic, demonstrates mastery of the research techniques relevant to professional work on the topic, and makes a contribution to the academic community it addresses.

In order to maintain good standing in the program, ABD students must submit dissertation work every semester to their advisors. They must also meet with their advisors and other committee members regularly to discuss their progress.

The Dissertation Defense

Once the dissertation is complete in the judgement of the dissertation director, there is a dissertation defense (“Final Exam”) at which the student presents the results of their research and is questioned about the implications of the work for their chosen field within Philosophy by the dissertation committee. The dissertation defense is open to the public and is scheduled with public notice. At the conclusion of this session, the defense is closed and a vote is taken by dissertation committee members. The committee can vote to pass the dissertation or pass the dissertation provided certain (typically minor) changes are made by the candidate and then approved by the dissertation director. Alternatively, the committee can vote to fail the dissertation and require the student to undertake major revisions schedule a new Final Exam.

After the Final Exam

Following a successful dissertation defense, students are responsible for preparing and submitting the final version of their dissertation to the Vanderbilt library in accordance with Graduate School deadlines. Students are also responsible for completing the required paperwork for the official conferral of the PhD and graduation from Vanderbilt.

Return to top

Standards of Progress

Overview of Requirements and Standards of Progress

To maintain good standing in the Ph.D. program, students must satisfy all requirements by the deadlines specified above. Failure to maintain good standing will result in departmental action, which may include expulsion of the student from the Ph.D. program.

Training for the Ph.D. goes beyond formal coursework and the dissertation; it includes participating in the life of the department. Students are expected to regularly attend departmental events, including colloquia, public lectures, workshops, and other events. Moreover, students are expected to exhibit an appropriate level of professionalism and responsibility in their roles as students, scholars, teachers, colleagues, and academic citizens. All graduate students should check and respond to their departmental email daily and should check their ground mail at least twice a week.

A student’s fellowship funding and good standing in the graduate program are conditional upon the student’s meeting appropriate standards of progress. In usual cases, these standards are as follows:

End of the first semester:

Students must have completed eleven credits, including three three-credit courses and the required two-credit Proseminar.

End of the second semester:

Students must have completed three additional three-credit courses for nine additional credits, thereby bringing the student’s total number of coursework credits to 20, and must have taken the Logic Exam or earned a “B” in PHIL 3003: Formal Logic and Its Applications.
- First summer: The department strongly encourages students to study for the Foreign Language Exam if they have not already satisfied this requirement and/or study for the Logic Exam if they have not already satisfied the Logic Requirement.

End of the third semester:

Students must have completed three additional three-credit courses for nine additional credits, thereby bringing the student’s total number of coursework credits to 29, and must have passed the Logic Exam (or have previously earned “B” or higher in Logic 3003). Students must also take the Foreign Language Exam by September 1.

End of the fourth semester:

Students must have completed three additional three-credit courses for nine additional credits, thereby bringing the student’s total number of coursework credits to 38. Students must pass the Foreign Language Competence Exam by April 15.
- Second Summer: The department strongly encourages students to begin work on their Dissertation Field Exam Bibliography. They should also begin organizing the bibliography into levels of priority and should begin reading material from the bibliography. Students may also want to start putting together their Dissertation Field Exam committee. Students must be in compliance with all departmental requirements by August 20 in order to qualify for the upcoming sixth semester off from teaching.

End of the fifth semester:

Students must have completed three additional three-credit courses for nine additional credits, thereby bringing the student’s total number of coursework credits to 47 and must have satisfied all distribution requirements.

End of the sixth semester:

In the sixth semester, students must register for at least nine research hours. By the end of this semester, students must have successfully completed their Dissertation Field Exam Bibliography, the DFE (Preliminary Exam), the DFE Oral Defense, and the Dissertation Prospectus Abstract.
- Third Summer: Students should complete their Dissertation Prospectus if they have not already done so, should defend the Dissertation Prospectus, or should be working on their dissertation.

End of the seventh semester:

In the seventh semester, students must have passed the Dissertation Prospectus Oral Exam (Qualifying Exam) by September 30.
- If students are not ABD entering the seventh semester, they should register for a sufficient number of PHIL 8999: Non-Candidate Research credits to stay on pace for the timely completion of the required 72 credit-hours by the time they are ready to defend the dissertation.
- If students are ABD at the start of the seventh semester, they should register for PHIL 9999: Ph.D. Dissertation Research instead. Please note the policy on “S” and “U” grades for PHIL 9999.

Eigth, ninth, and tenth semesters:

Students must register for a sufficient number of Ph.D. Dissertation Research credits (PHIL 9999) to ensure the completion of the required 72 credit-hours by the time they are ready to defend the dissertation. Please note the policy on “S” and “U” grades for PHIL 9999.
By the end of the tenth semester, students should have completed a dissertation and passed a public Final Dissertation Defense, thereby completing all requirements for the Ph.D. Graduate students for whom the faculty have approved a longer course of study should complete and defend the dissertation and all Ph.D. requirements according to the schedule. No funding is guaranteed beyond this tenth semester.

Return to top