Philosophy and Jewish Studies Combined Ph.D. Program

A total of 12 term courses must be completed in two years (except for a work-in-progress seminar which may be during a third year). 9 of these courses must be taken in Philosophy.  These must include the First Year Seminar (Phil 7705) and a Formal Methods course, as well as 6 courses distributed among the following areas. Students must take 2 courses in each of these 3 areas.

• metaphysics, theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics
• ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, political philosophy, philosophy of law, theory of value
• history of philosophy

Neither the First Year Seminar nor a Formal Method course counts towards the required minimum of two within any of the three categories. All of these 12 courses should be letter-graded.

Philosophy offers a work-in-progress seminar where students present their work-in-progress (for qualifying papers, chapters of the thesis, or other possible publications) and discuss other students’ work. This seminar is letter-graded.  Students are strongly encouraged to take this seminar.

In addition to 9 Philosophy courses, students must take 3 Jewish Studies courses, one of which must be Introduction to Jewish Studies (JDST 6500): Taken in the first two years, JDST 6500 is comprised of two components:  

1. one semester of seminar meetings that introduce students to the field of Jewish Studies (history of the field, central debates, methodological issues, and trends in contemporary research) and  
2. a year-long Graduate-Faculty Colloquium, in which graduate students in the Jewish Studies Combined PhD, plus others as the schedule permits, present ongoing research, and which meets every two to three weeks. Jewish Studies courses may also satisfy Philosophy coursework requirements. 

The remaining 2 Jewish Studies courses should be in some area other than Jewish thought, and where relevant in a historical period other than that in which the student specializes.

When submitting their teaching preferences to the Curriculum Committee, instructors of 5000-7000 level classes declare what course work requirement the proposed class could satisfy. Instructors convey this information to graduate students before the students sign up for these courses. If a course can satisfy multiple requirements students indicate to the instructor which one they intend to satisfy. The course work is evaluated accordingly and the information whether the instructor considers the work as fulfilling the requirement is conveyed to the two Directors of Graduate Studies. (Students are advised to consult with the instructor as to how best to frame their paper(s) in view of the requirement they intend to fulfill.) Students can request subsequent reclassification of the course; the decision will be based on re-assessment of the written work by the instructor and the two Directors of Graduate Studies.

From time to time a graduate student may want to take an intermediate undergraduate course when there is no available graduate-level alternative. Approval by the instructor of the course and, if this is to fulfill a requirement, approval by the appropriate Director of Graduate Studies is required. Normally this will involve additional work.

If a student wants to take a graduate course not cross-listed in philosophy to count toward fulfillment of the course requirements, the student will need the permission of the Director of Graduate Studies.

Co-authored seminar papers are permitted at the discretion and with the prior approval of the relevant Instructor. Full disclosure to all co-authors of the use of shared work for evaluation is required.

Every graduate student in residence in the combined philosophy Ph.D. program who has not been advanced to candidacy must be enrolled in at least one course in each semester of residence. When the 12-course requirement has been met, the student usually enrolls for the course “CAND 9999.”

Grades
The Graduate School requires that a student have at least two “Honors” grades in the total record. The department requires that these two grades be in courses given by two different instructors and not in tutorials.

Due Dates for Course Work
Course work should be completed by the end of the semester. The department and the Graduate School due date for fall-term grades is January 2nd, and for spring-term grades, June 1st.

Instructors have the responsibility for assigning dates for submission of course work to meet these grade deadlines. If a student and instructor have agreed that an extension is appropriate, the student must submit a request for the Temporary Incomplete (TI) with the intended completion date, signed by the instructor and the Directors of Graduate Studies. The instructor will indicate the mark of TI on the grade sheet, which is to be submitted to the Office of the Registrar by the appropriate grade submission deadline. Only one TI for courses taken in a single term is permitted.  If papers are not submitted by September 1 of the following academic year, a TI will be converted to a permanent Incomplete (I) on the student’s record.

Credit for Course Work Done Elsewhere
In recognition of previous graduate-level work completed after receipt of the bachelor’s or bachelor’s-equivalent degree at Yale or elsewhere, the Directors of Graduate Studies may recommend waiving a maximum of two courses of the requirement (including a formal method course). This request must be made by the end of the first year at Yale. Graduate students must take at least one class in each of the three categories listed in the Yale Philosophy department. Credit for course work done elsewhere does not reduce the tuition or residency requirement of the Graduate School. Whether a waiver is granted is ultimately decided by the Graduate School. The course waiver must be requested before the student is registered for their second year of classes.

Tutorials
A student may take tutorials with faculty affiliated with the Philosophy Department and/or the Jewish Studies Program, and these may count towards the 12 course requirements.  These tutorials should be letter-graded and the maximum number of tutorials which fulfill a course requirement is two.

At least one of the twelve courses taken must be in logic or, with permission, other formal methods, and this course does not count towards the required minimum of two within any of the three categories. All graduate students may fulfill this requirement by taking a graduate-level course in logic (e.g. PHIL 5567, PHIL 6627). When a student’s research involves a different formal method (e.g. probability theory, game theory, statistics), the student can petition the Philosophy Director of Graduate Studies for permission to fulfill the requirement by taking a course in this other method.  Students are not required to fulfill the Skills Requirement of the Philosophy PhD program.

Students must demonstrate competence in Hebrew, either by taking HEBR 550a and HEBR 501b (total of two semesters), or by passing an exam administered by Yale Hebrew language instructors (or another accredited academic institution).  This requirement should be completed before or during the first year of study.

Two qualifying papers written in English must be submitted, one in history of Jewish philosophy, the other in contemporary Jewish philosophy involving another distribution area.  One qualifying paper would normally be submitted at the end of the fourth semester, the other at the beginning of the fifth semester. By the end of the fifth semester both qualifying papers should be deemed to have fulfilled the requirement. Two qualifying papers should be submitted before the prospectus. Qualifying papers should be no more than 30 pages or 9000 words long. They usually originate in course work done during the first two years; but the reworked papers should be more substantial and professional than an ordinary term paper.  At the end of the term, instructors will give a written indication whether in their judgment the term paper is suitable for development into a qualifying paper.  

In special circumstances, at the discretion of the two Directors of Graduate Studies, one co-authored Qualifying Paper may be permitted. Such permission will be granted only when the student can show how their proposed pair of Qualifying Papers speaks to the general program requirement to demonstrate across the pair of papers qualifying-level work by the candidate in both historical and systematic philosophical work.

The process of evaluation for qualifying papers is as follows:

1. At least ten weeks prior to the submission due date, each student submits to the Directors of Graduate Studies a paper they hope to develop as a qualifying paper. They also identify a faculty member they wish to see as a reader. If the submitted paper is a term paper, students are encouraged (but not required) to pick as reader the person for whom it was written.
2. The Directors of Graduate Studies identify a second reader and sends the paper to both readers for initial evaluation.
3. Each faculty reader decides, within two weeks, whether they are willing to evaluate the paper and whether they deem it suitable for development into a qualifying paper. If the answer to either question is negative, the Directors of Graduate Studies will approach a new reader. This process continues until two willing readers are found unless the Directors of Graduate Studies decide (based on negative feedback) to halt it. In the latter case, the Directors of Graduate Studies inform the student that the paper is not admissible as a qualifying paper and invites the student to submit a different paper. In the former case, the Directors of Graduate Studies informs the student who the readers will be. Each reader writes up their recommendations for revisions. The readers share their recommendations with each other and, except in the event of inconsistent recommendations, with the student. If the recommendations are inconsistent, the Directors of Graduate Studies will facilitate achieving consistency. The timeline for this part of the process is ordinarily four weeks.
4. Based on the recommendations, the student revises the paper and submits it within the existing program deadlines for qualifying papers.
5. Upon submission, the paper is evaluated by the same two readers as to whether the paper successfully addressed the recommendations for improvement and the paper deemed to have fulfilled the requirement in the event that it does. The Directors of Graduate Studies inform the student of the outcome.

At the end of the fourth semester graduate students should find a faculty member who will work with them in the fifth semester to help identify a thesis topic and work toward preparing a dissertation prospectus. After submitting two qualifying papers, a student is required to take a prospectus tutorial. The grading for the prospectus tutorial is pass/fail. The tutorial covers material that is essential for the prospectus, and must result in some form of written work which will be shared with the prospective dissertation committee. At least one member of the committee must be a member of the Jewish Studies Program faculty.

At the beginning of the sixth term the committee meets to discuss the written work prepared during the prospectus tutorial. At some point during the sixth semester, a student must submit a dissertation prospectus to his/her dissertation committee. An oral examination of the prospectus will be arranged by the student in consultation with the dissertation committee and both Directors of Graduate Studies. If the prospectus needs to be revised, the revised version, approved by the dissertation committee, is submitted to both Directors of Graduate Studies.

The prospectus should take the form of a clear statement concerning the central subject of the dissertation, the specific problems or issues to be addressed and their importance, the approach the dissertation intends to take, and the literature or other materials to be used.  The function of the prospectus, not being the outline or the summary of the dissertation, is to focus as clearly as possible, for both student and dissertation committee, on the content and scope of the research he or she plans to carry out. In preparing a prospectus, students are encouraged to keep in mind that it will serve as a guide to the committee in deciding: 

1. whether the topic is manageable within the prescribed limits
2. whether the necessary materials are available
3. whether any specific background, such as some knowledge of another field, foreign language, etc., is required for the successful completion of the project.

Prospectuses will obviously vary, depending on the topic, but the final version should be between 15 and 20 pages (i.e. 4,500–6,000 words), without the bibliography. In addition to this, an advisor may require the following: an essay that should demonstrate the ability to put forth his/her own arguments on the issue.  Even though it does not have to be conclusive, the student should indicate some of the main arguments of the thesis.  In this case, it can be more or less a chapter of the thesis. 

Final approval of the prospectus by the committee may be understood as a kind of contract committing the student to the pursuit of the specified topic and the department to the acceptance of that topic (not the dissertation!) as a legitimate area of inquiry. Since all research is an open-ended affair, it is understood that should a dissertation develop along lines that differ significantly from the original prospectus, the (possibly changed) dissertation committee may request a new prospectus

It is expected that the prospectus will be approved by the end of the student’s third year. The Graduate School requires that the prospectus be approved not less than six months before the student intends to submit the dissertation. 

A student is admitted to candidacy after successful completion of all pre-dissertation requirements including approval of the prospectus. In order to register for a seventh term, a student must have been admitted to candidacy. After being admitted to candidacy, a student needs to enroll “DISR 9999” every semester.

Doctoral students normally serve as teaching fellows for four semesters as part of their professional training. Ordinarily students are expected to teach in their third and fourth years, but with the approval of the Directors of Graduate Studies and their advisor, students may teach in the second year in areas of particular value to their professional development, or if they have received course waivers and completed coursework early. Students who have received an outside fellowship also may adjust their teaching schedule. During their first term of teaching, students must attend training sessions run by the Center for Teaching and Learning. In addition to serving as a teaching fellow in a lecture course, advanced doctoral students may apply for the opportunity to co-teach an undergraduate course as an Associate in Teaching, or to teach their own course as a Part-Time Acting Instructor.

Students are normally expected to complete their dissertation by the end of their sixth year. Financial support from the Yale Graduate School is organized around a six-year timeline. 

Students must participate in a chapter conference with their dissertation committee no later than the end of their ninth semester. The student, together with the dissertation committee, discuss a dissertation chapter to give early feedback on the research, argument, and style of the first writing accomplished on the dissertation. 

Students must meet with their dissertation committee for a dissertation defense no less than one month before students plan to submit their completed dissertations. Prior to the dissertation defense, students must provide their committee with a relatively polished full draft of their dissertation. The dissertation defense is intended to give students advice on the overall arguments and the final shape of the dissertation or future book, and to leave time for adjustments based on the discussion.