The PhD Comprehensive Examination
- All course work must be completed before the PhD Comprehensive Examination is taken.
- Students preparing for the PhD Comprehensive Examination should register for PHIL 5605: Doctoral Exam the first semester after completing course work and PHIL 5606 for all succeeding semesters until their dissertation topic has been approved.
- The PhD Comprehensive Examination is taken during the regular semester following completion of course work. Written permission from the Director of the Center must be obtained to schedule the PhD Comprehensive Examination at a different time.
- The PhD Comprehensive Examination is organized by the faculty member designated as the Faculty Coordinator. The Faculty Coordinator is responsible for the PhD Comprehensive Course for that academic year. The Faculty Coordinator will solicit written questions from all Center faculty and at least two Center faculty members must grade each question. In consultation with the Director of the Center, the Faculty Coordinator will average the grades on the written test. Students must pass the written test with a minimum grade of 80 in order to proceed to the oral examination. If a student fails the written examination, she/he must retake the exam within six months.
- The PhD Comprehensive consists of four parts: a twelve-hour written examination, divided into four parts: three hours on ancient philosophy, three hours on medieval philosophy, three hours on early modern philosophy, three hours on late modern and recent Thomistic philosophy. The candidate will take the written examination on three different days within the same week.
- Questions will be solicited from all faculty in the Center for the written examination. At least two faculty members will grade each question. The Faculty Coordinator will average the grades on the written test. Students must pass the written test with a minimum grade of 85 to proceed to the oral examination. If failed, the written exam may be retaken once, but must be retaken within one year of the date of the original exam.
- The oral examination lasts one hour and must be taken within two weeks of the final part of the written examination. The oral examination is set by three faculty examiners chosen by the Director. The three examiners determine the grade for the oral exam. If the candidate passes the oral with a minimum grade of “B”, the grades on the written and oral portions are compared and the overall grade is determined by vote. If a student fails the oral examination she/he must retake it within one year.
Book List for the PhD Comprehensive Examination
For this examination the student must choose twenty-four (24) readings from the following menu of options:
Ancient Greek Philosophy (6 works must be chosen)
2 texts from Plato
- Plato Republic (required)
1 of the following
- Plato Symposium
- Plato Gorgias
- Plato Timaeus
- Plato Phaedo
3 texts from Aristotle
1 of the following
- Aristotle Politics
- Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics
2 from the following
- Aristotle Physics
- Aristotle On the Soul
- Aristotle Posterior Analytics
- Aristotle Metaphysics
1 text from the following
- Plotinus Enneads (Selections translated in Lloyd Gerson, The Plotinus Reader)
- Epicurus Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines
- Cicero De Officiis
Medieval/Latin Philosophy (6 works must be chosen)
1 of the following from Augustine
- Augustine Confessions (Books I-VI, X-XI, XIV, XIX, XXII)
- Augustine Free Choice of the Will and On Christian Teaching
3 texts from Aquinas
1 text from the following
- Aquinas De ente et essentia and Summa theologiae Ia, qq. 1-13, 44-46
- Aquinas Commentary on the Metaphysics (Selections: Proemium, Books I-II, VI, Book XII)
1 text from the following
- Aquinas Summa theologiae Ia, qq. 75-87
- Aquinas Commentary on De anima (Selections: Books II-III)
1 text from the following
- Aquinas Summa theologiae Ia-IIae, qq. 56-67, 90-100
- Aquinas Summa theologiae Ia-IIae, qq. 1-20
- Aquinas Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics (Selections: Books I-II; book III, lect. 1-13; book VI; book X)
2 texts from the following
- Scotus Selections
- On common nature and individuals. Ord. 2, d. 3, p. 1, qq. 5-6, translated Paul Vincent Spade, 93-113. q.5: “Is a material substance a ‘this’ and individual through matter.’ q. 6: “Is a material substance individual through some entity that by itself determines the nature to singularity.” Q. 6 is embedded in q. 5. (Five Texts on the Medieval Problem of Universals, trans. and ed. Paul Vincent Spade).
- Reportatio IA, d. 2 (Parisian Proof for the Existence of God, Selections) Trans. Allan Wolter and Marilyn Adams, in Duns Scotus, Metaphysician, ed. William A. Frank and Allan Wolter, pp. 40-73 (fewer pages because of facing translation)
- On the will as a rational potency. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam IX, q. 15, trans. Allan Wolter in Duns Scotus on the WIll and Morality, 1st ed., 145-173 (really 14 pages because of facing translation).
- On happiness and the will. Ord. 4, q. 49, qq. 9-10, trans. Allan Wolter, 183-197 (really around 7 pages).
- Suarez Metaphysical Disputations (Selections: DM 31. On the Essence of Finite Being as Such, On the Existence of That Essence and Their Distinction. Trans. Norman J. Wells.)
- Ockham Selections
- Universals. Summa totius logicae, I, cap. 14-16, trans. Boehner/Brown, 32-40; Ord. 1. d. 2, qq. 7-8, translated Paul Vincent Spade, 190-231.
- Supposition of Terms. Summa totius logicae, I, cap. 62-65, trans. Boehner/Brown in Philosophical Writings, 64-74.
- Intuitive and Abstractive Cognition. Quod 5, q. 5, trans. Freddoso, vol. 2, 413-417; Quod 6, q. 6, trans. Freddoso, 506-508.
- Relation. Quod 6, q. 15-16, trans. Freddoso, 536-545.
- Avicenna Metaphysics of the Healing
Early Modern Philosophy (5 works must be chosen)
Choose 5 texts, from at least 4 authors, one of which must be Kant
- Descartes Meditations
- Leibniz Monadology and Discourse on Metaphysics
- Hobbes Leviathan, Parts I-III
- Locke Second Treatise on Government
- Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Selections: Book I, ch. 1-4; Book II, ch. 1-2, 8-13, 21-27; Book IV, ch. 1-7, 15-19)
- Berkeley Three Dialogues
- Hume Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
- Hume Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
- Hume Dialogue on Natural Religion
- Kant Prolegomenon to Any Future Metaphysics
- Kant Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals
- Kant Critique of Pure Reason
- Kant Critique of Practical Reason
Late Modern Philosophy (4 must be chosen)
2 texts from the following
- Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit, Selections (Page numbers based on the Miller translation for Oxford.)
- Preface 1-45
- Self-consciousness 104-139
- Reason:
- (BB) Spirit: VI. Spirit : C. Spirit that is certain of itself. Morality 364-410
- (CC) Religion 453-479
- (DD) Absolute Knowing 479-495
- Nietzsche The Genealogy of Morals
- Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling
- Heidegger Being and Time
- Husserl Cartesian Meditations
2 from the following
- Frege “Sense and Reference,” Russell “The Theory of Descriptions,” Russell "On Denoting," Kripke Naming and Necessity, and Kripke “Identity and Necessity”
- Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations, Part I
- Anscombe “Modern Moral Philosophy,” and Geach God and the Soul
- Quine “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” and Quine “On What There Is”
- Rawls Theory of Justice, Ch. 1
Recent Thomistic Philosophy (3 must be chosen)
1 of the following
- Maritain The Degrees of Knowledge
- Maritain Existence and the Existent and Preface to Metaphysics
- Maritain Integral Humanism
1 of the following
- Gilson The Unity of Philosophical Experience
- Gilson Being and Some Philosophers
1 of the following
- Finnis Moral, Political, and Legal Theory
- MacIntyre After Virtue
- MacIntyre Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry
- De Koninck “On the Primacy of the Common Good,” and De Koninck “In Defense of St. Thomas,” and Eschmann “In Defense of Jacques Maritain”
- Wallace Modeling of Nature (Selections: Part I, all, except 2.10, 4.10; Part II: 6.1-6.8; 7.1-7.5; 8.1-8.6)
See Approved CTS Comps List for PDF chart.