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U N I V E
R S I T Y O F O K L A H O M A
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below are the requirements and procedures in the degree programs offered by the
Department of Philosophy. These are in
addition to the general requirements of the
I. General Information
All required courses (e.g., required courses in
symbolic logic) must be passed with a grade of "B" or better.
Any student who wishes to receive an M.A. degree in Philosophy from OU but who does not intend to continue in the department’s Ph.D. program should apply to the M.A. program. The M.A. program has both a thesis option and an exam option.
1. This program consists of thirty hours of
graduate work, up to four hours of which may be thesis research. Up to eight
hours may be transferred from other institutions or taken in other
departments. Credit hours taken in other
departments must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Credit hours
transferred from another institution must be approved by both the Director of
Graduate Studies and the
2. All students must pass Symbolic Logic I
or equivalent.
3. M.A. students are advised by the Director of Graduate Studies. Toward the end of the first year, students doing the thesis option should consult with the graduate director concerning the selection of topics and committees for their theses. The degree is awarded upon the student's completing all required coursework, submitting an acceptable thesis, and passing an oral examination on the thesis.
b. Exam option
1. This degree requires thirty-six hours of coursework,
including Symbolic Logic I or equivalent and a graduate course in the history
of philosophy. Up to eight hours may be
transferred from other institutions or taken in other departments. Credit hours taken in other departments must
be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Credit hours transferred from
another institution must be approved by both the Director of Graduate Studies
and the
2. In addition to the thirty-six hours of
coursework, students enrolled in the non-thesis program must take a written
comprehensive examination as stipulated by the
a. A two-hour test over one of the following three areas in the history of philosophy: (1) ancient philosophy, (2) medieval philosophy, or (3) modern philosophy.
b. A two-hour test over one of the following two areas of philosophy: (1) ethics, or (2) metaphysics and epistemology.
Students in the M.A. program are advised by the Director of Graduate Studies. A student doing the exam option should consult with the Graduate Director the semester before he or she intends to take the exam. The Graduate Director will appoint a Comprehensive Examination committee composed as follows: a faculty member whose area of expertise includes the history area chosen by the student for the first two-hour test, a faculty member whose area of expertise includes the contemporary area chosen by the student for the second two-hour test, and a third member chosen from the Graduate Studies Committee, normally the Director of Graduate Studies. The first individual will be responsible for the preparation of the history exam, the second individual will be responsible for the preparation of the contemporary exam, and the third individual will serve as Chair of the exam committee whose special responsibility is to maintain consistency with past exams. At least one week prior to the exam date a draft of each exam will be circulated among the members of the exam committee for approval. Copies of previous examinations are available to the student in the department office. The student is also encouraged to discuss preparation procedures with the members of the committee.
Within one week following the completion
of the exam, all of the members of the comprehensive exam committee will score
the exams and the results will be reported to the
Any student who ultimately aims to receive a Ph.D. at
OU should apply directly to the Ph.D. program.
Students may apply to the program with either a Bachelor’s degree or a
Master’s degree. A student in the OU
M.A. program who wishes to apply to the Ph.D. program should do so by the
semester prior to the semester he or she intends to take the Ph.D. Qualifying
exam described below.
1. Each new student should consult with
the graduate adviser concerning the appointment of an advisory committee, which
consists of four members from the Philosophy Department and one from
outside. The student is required to meet
with this committee to plan his or her program within a month of its
appointment. This meeting should take
place by the end of the student's second semester in the Ph.D. program.
2. Each student must take a Ph.D. Qualifying Exam in
situ without notes to continue in the program. The exam will be given each spring
semester. The date of the exam will be
set by the department. It will be graded
according to the following scale: A = Ph.D. qualified. B = M.A. qualified. C =
fail.
a. For students who enter the Ph.D. program
with a Bachelor’s degree and no Master’s degree in Philosophy:
i. Students who enter the program in the fall must take the exam in their fourth semester and receive a grade of A to continue in the Ph.D. program. In order to qualify to take the exam, a student must have completed 21 credit hours with a GPA of 3.5. A student who does not qualify to take the exam in the fourth semester will no longer be in the Ph.D. program. The student may apply to the M.A. program.
ii. Rules for students who enter the program in the spring are the same as for those who enter in the fall (section i) except that they must take the exam in their fifth semester.
iii. Students who receive a grade of B on the exam will transfer into the M.A. program and will not continue in the Ph.D. program after receiving the M.A. degree. Should a student receive a grade of C, he or she may not continue in the Ph.D. program. The student may, however, apply to the M.A. program and take the M.A. exam after completing ¾ of the total course work and all required course work for the Master’s degree. If the M.A. exam is passed, the student will receive the M.A. degree after completing the course work for the Master’s. If the M.A. exam is failed, the student will have to leave the program without an M.A.
iv. Students who receive an A on the exam will receive the M.A. degree while continuing in the Ph.D. program upon successful completion of 36 credit hours of course work (including all required course work).
b. For students who enter the Ph.D. program with a Master’s degree in Philosophy:
i.
Students who
enter the program in the fall must take the qualifying exam in their second
semester and must receive a grade of A to continue in the Ph.D. program. In
order to qualify to take the exam a student must have completed 9 credit hours
of graduate course work with a grade of B or higher on all course work
completed at the time of the exam. A student who does not qualify to take the
exam in the second semester or who does not receive a grade of A on the exam
may not continue in the program.
ii. Rules for students who enter the program in the spring
are the same as for those who enter in the fall (section i)
except that they must take the qualifying exam in their third semester.
c.
Content and
grading of exam
The content of the Ph.D. Qualifying exam will be the
same as for the M.A. exam. The exam will
be graded as a whole by four faculty members who prepare the exam in addition
to the member appointed by the Graduate Studies Committee, normally the
Graduate Director.
3. This degree requires ninety hours of graduate
work, of which thirty may be dissertation research. The number of hours that may be transferred
from other programs is determined individually.
An M.A. in philosophy from another institution normally transfers thirty
hours (all work transferred must be graded "B" or better). Ordinarily, no work in other departments is required
for the Ph.D. degree in philosophy, but the advisory committee may recommend
such work as a part of the program of individual students. With the approval of the advisory committee,
up to twelve hours outside philosophy may be counted toward this degree. (Requests to exceed this limit must be
approved by the faculty as a whole.) If
a student's advisory committee believes that the student's proposed
dissertation topic necessitates competence in one or more foreign languages,
the committee may require the student to demonstrate such competence before
beginning work on the dissertation.
Normally, a maximum of nine hours of Independent Study (Philosophy 5990)
will be allowed in this program.
4. The student's coursework counted toward the Ph.D. degree must meet the following set of distribution requirements:
a. Symbolic Logic II or the equivalent.
b. Nine hours in the History of Philosophy, including at least three hours in Ancient Philosophy and three hours in Modern Philosophy.
c. Nine hours in Ethics, at least six hours of
which must be in non-applied areas of Ethics.
d. Nine hours in Metaphysics and Epistemology,
including at least three hours in each field.
The Graduate Studies Committee, in consultation with the instructor of a given graduate level course, will determine which distribution requirements (if any) a particular course satisfies. A few courses may be used to help satisfy distribution requirements in more than one area; for example, a course on Kant's ethics could be used to satisfy part of the history distribution requirement or else part of the ethics distribution requirement. However, such courses cannot be used to satisfy more than one requirement; in such cases, students must decide which of the two areas they want to have the course counted in.
5. Upon recommendation by the student's advisory committee, the student may be invited to take the general examination. Typically the student will have completed the general examination by the end of his or her seventh semester in the department (by the end of the fourth semester for a student entering with an M.A. in Philosophy). Since this examination is a field examination and is not confined to coursework, the student should prepare for it not just through formal coursework but also through private study. Copies of previous examinations are available in the departmental office. The student is also encouraged to meet with the chair (or other members) of his or her Advisory Committee (but especially the chair) for suggested reading and other recommendations for study.
6. The
general examination consists of a written and oral examination in the student's
major area of study; this area must either be (a) one of those on the list
below, or else (b) one that is approved by the department as a whole. It should be selected after meeting and
discussing the matter with the Advisory Committee. The General Exam must be taken over a
four-hour period in situ without notes.
This does not preclude take-home work following a marginal pass of the
examination.
A general examination may be taken over any of the following areas without needing special approval of the department (it may be taken over other areas, but only with official departmental approval): Aesthetics; Epistemology; Ethics; History of Ancient Philosophy; History of Modern Philosophy; Logic; Metaphysics; Philosophy of Education; Philosophy of Language; Philosophy of Law; Philosophy of Logic; Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy of Religion; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of Social Science; Social Philosophy; Political Philosophy.
The chair of the Advisory Committee is responsible for preparing the exam. He or she will solicit questions and suggestions from the other members of the Advisory Committee (including the outside member) before composing the final draft of the exam.
Following the oral portion of the exam, the Advisory Committee, including the outside member, will meet to evaluate the student's performance. Among the guidelines used in evaluating the exam are facility of written and oral expression, breadth and depth of understanding of the subject matter, familiarity with the relevant primary and secondary literature, and mastery of argumentation. In general, the student is expected to have an understanding sufficient to teach a graduate-level survey course that covers the relevant subject matter. The Advisory Committee may award a pass or a pass conditional on some specified additional work in one area, or it may give a failing grade. Within 72 hours of the oral portion of the General Exam, the chair of the Advisory Committee will submit a written report signed by all members of the committee to the Graduate Dean, indicating whether the student has passed, marginally passed, or failed the examination. The Advisory Committee Chair will inform the student in writing of the committee’s decision and encourage the student to discuss his or her performance with the committee chair or other members. If the General Examination is failed, the student may, at the decision of the Advisory Committee, make application to repeat the examination a second and final time in a subsequent semester.
7. After passing the general examination, the student must prepare a dissertation proposal for approval by his or her advisory committee. On completion of the dissertation, this committee conducts the required defense of the dissertation.
V. Financial Assistance
1. Various forms of assistance are available from the
2. Financial assistance from the department is based primarily on academic merit. All applicants for the Ph.D. program will be automatically considered for an assistantship. Applicants for the M.A program normally will not be considered for an assistantship, but some students in the M.A. program may be offered aid when available. No application forms are needed. Early financial aid awards (for new students) are determined in early February. To be competitive for these awards all application materials must be received by February 1. Applications for aid received after this date will be considered as aid remains available.
3. Financial
aid is presumed for students in the Ph.D. program until they take the
qualifying exam. After successfully passing the qualifying exam, a student in
the Ph.D. program will have presumptive aid for three more years. Presumption
of financial aid requires satisfactory progress toward the completion of the
degree. Satisfactory progress requires:
a. completion of a minimum of twelve credit
hours per calendar year,
b. maintaining a 3.25 GPA,
c. completion of
sixty hours exclusive of dissertation hours by the end of the seventh semester
(excluding summer semesters), and
d. passing the Ph.D.
general exam and having a dissertation prospectus formally approved by the end
of the student's eighth semester (excluding summer semesters).
A
student who has failed to satisfy any one of these conditions forfeits his/her
presumption of continued financial aid.
Students who forfeit their presumption of aid may continue to receive
aid only on a competitive basis with other students (both new and
continuing).
VI. Admission
The application for admission to any of the graduate
programs can be found on the University of Oklahoma Office of Admissions
webpage (http://www.ou.edu/admrec/admissions.htm). Students are, however, encouraged to communicate
directly with the Director of Graduate Studies concerning any questions they
may have about admission requirements, application procedures, or financial
aid. Financial aid is awarded on a
competitive basis early each spring for the following fall; thus, applications
received by February 1 are encouraged.
In addition to the admission requirements of the
International students for whom English is a second
language must submit TOEFL scores (minimum score: 575 if administered in written format; 233 if
administered on computer) to be considered for admission.