Philosophy comps gives you an opportunity to dive into a philosophical topic of your choosing and to engage with your peers in sustained philosophical dialogue on both your research and theirs. There are three main stages to comps: The first involves involves some independent preparatory work and culminates in PHIL 398 (3 credits, SCrNC), which is a 10-week course that runs Fall term. The goal of the first stage is to settle on a topic, do some reading, and generate a substantial proposal. The second stage involves PHIL 399 (6 credits, graded), which runs every Winter term. In the second stage, you work your way up to writing the comps itself, with the help of feedback from your peers, the primary comps advisor (the faculty member running PHIL 399), and a second reader from the Philosophy faculty (assigned roughly the basis of area of expertise, but with an eye toward keeping the workload equitable among the faculty). The third, and final, stage involves PHIL 400 (3 credits, SCrNC) which runs every Spring term. In this stage, you revise your comps in light of feedback from faculty members in the Department, and then give a public presentation and defense of your work. Typically, students comps in their Senior year, although it is possible to comps during your Junior year, if there is good reason to do so (e.g. you are a double major, or plan to be off-campus a substantial chunk of your Senior year).
Stage 0: Spring and Summer Before Your Senior Year
Starting around Spring of the year before your comps, and certainly no later than that Summer, you should begin thinking about possible comps topics. We recommend that you choose a topic about which you have done some reading already (preferably in one of your courses). While you may write on a topic that you have already written a seminar paper about, the comps paper will need to be new writing, and you’ll need to submit a copy of the seminar paper along with the comps).
You’ll want to find a topic that isn’t too broad (would it take a book—or series of books—to answer the question you’re asking?), and isn’t too narrow (are you simply rehashing Philosopher Fancy Pants’ argument for Φ?). In the Summer and the first five weeks of the Fall Term, you should delve into additional reading to help you narrow the focus of your topic. While you’re on your own in this preliminary stage, you should feel free to meet with faculty and run your topic by them.
Stage 1: Fall Term (PHIL 398)
You will register for PHIL 398, a 3-credit, mandatory Sc/Cr/Nc course, which runs during Fall term each year. If you will be off campus that term, you must – in consultation with the chair – register for PHIL 398 as an independent study in Spring of your Junior year. PHIL 398 meets once a week during Fall term. The purpose of the class is to give you time to work on your comps proposal and a first draft. The course will also introduce you to tools and methods of philosophical research.
Here are the key deadlines and assignments for PHIL 398:
Friday of Week 3: Proposal of roughly 800 words + Proposed Initial Reading List list of roughly 5-8 sources. Proposals and Proposed Initial Reading List will be circulated among faculty according to expertise. Faculty will identify a number of sources (which may or may not be on the student’s list) for the student to annotate and summarize.
Friday of Week 7: Proposal of roughly 1200 words + Annotated Readings + Bibliography. These will be circulated among faculty who will offer feedback (including suggestions for further reading). Faculty will briefly check to see that readings have been annotated and that the proposal reflects that the student has really done the reading!
End of Fall Term: First short comps draft (~3k) due. Students will hand in the start of a proper comps draft that conveys the broad contours of the project and includes a well-defined thesis (or at least, an attempt at one!). While faculty will make sure drafts meet the minimum expected standard, they will not offer feedback at this point. Rather, this initial short draft will serve as the basis for the students’ first presentation to the comps seminar in the Winter, where they will receive extensive feedback. Having said that, the faculty will step in at the end of Fall term if it looks like a student needs a substantial course correction.
Stage 2: Winter Term (PHIL399)
In the Winter term, you register for PHIL399 (6 credits) and work with the other compsing majors in the Senior Thesis seminar. During this term, you will continue your research, present your ideas to the seminar, and produce a refined draft of your comps (word limit: 6000 words, footnotes included). The final Winter draft of comps must be submitted by the of the finals period. A grade on the A-F scale is assigned by the Department as a whole, on the basis of an evaluation by the primary comps advisor and your second reader.
Primary Advisor and Second Readers: PHIL399 is taught by a member of the faculty who has the primary responsibility for advising you in the development of your research and the writing of your paper. You should meet with both your primary advisor and second reader several times over the course of Winter term while writing your comps. Second readers will:
- (end of week 4) Receive the first full draft of your comps,
- (week 5) Meet with you you to discuss the draft,
- (end of week 8) Receive the second full draft of your comps, and
- (week 9) Supply written comments on the second draft.
Some second readers may be willing and able to meet more and comment on more drafts, but you shouldn’t count on it, and you should try to be respectful of their time.
Stage 3: Spring Term (PHIL 400)
In the Spring term, you register for PHIL400 (3 credits, SCrNC). There are two parts to PHIL400. First, you must revise and resubmit your paper on the basis of feedback received on the final version of the paper you submitted for PHIL 399. The word limit is still 6000 words (notes included) so you’ll have to learn the valuable skill of revising and responding to feedback without increasing your word count. (You’d be surprised how much you can compress most papers with no sacrifice to the style or content). Your revised paper should be handed in one week before your comps presentation, together with an explanation (not included in the 6000 word limit) of the changes you made in this final revision of your comps.
Second, you will participate in the public Senior Colloquium series. Each meeting of the colloquium is one hour during common time on Tuesday/Thursday, and consists of:
- A 20-25 minute presentation of the major ideas of your comps paper. Your presentation should be a prepared spoken presentation, and not just a reading of the paper.
- A series of comments and questions on this material (5-10 minutes) by a designated peer commentator and your response. The commentary will be made available to the presenter by the commentator at least 48 hours beforehand.
- General public discussion of the issues.
Based on your final submitted paper, your presentation, your role as commentator for one of your peers, the questions you asked when not a presenter or commentator, and your general participation in the Colloquium, you will be assigned a grade for PHIL400 (Distinction, Pass, or Fail).