Department of Philosophy
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Preliminary Exams and the Dissertation Requirement
Upon completing the area requirements and the language requirement the student, in consultation with the Chair of the Graduate Committee, shall form a dissertation committee composed of three faculty members and submit a dissertation prospectus to his or her dissertation committee. When all the members of this committee have received the prospectus and have had an opportunity to discuss it with the student, a preliminary examination covering the dissertation prospectus will be scheduled, in order to determine whether the student's background is sufficient for dealing with the topic. Upon satisfactory completion of the preliminary examination the student will be advanced to Ph.D. candidacy. The student will write the dissertation under the direction of his or her committee's Chair. It is expected that the dissertation shall not exceed 350 pages. When the work is completed and judged by the student and the committee to be an original and significant contribution to philosophy, the student will stand for a final oral defense of the dissertation before his or her committee, a 'fourth reader' appointed by the Chair of the Graduate Committee, and other interested or invited persons. The exam cannot be scheduled until all members of the committee and the fourth reader have received copies of the final version of the dissertation and have had sufficient time to read it carefully.
It is not required that the dissertation consist of a lengthy treatment of a single topic. A small collections of original research papers on a variety of topics, related or disparate, is permissible, provided the work on each is of dissertation quality.