General Information
The Susan Linn Sage School of Philosophy was founded at Cornell in 1891 with an endowment given by Henry W. Sage. Cornell is an unusually diverse university of about eighteen thousand students. There are about four thousand undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences and about forty-five hundred students in the Graduate School. Ithaca is a city of about thirty thousand people (including students), situated amid great natural beauty at the southern end of Lake Cayuga, one of the largest of New York's Finger Lakes.
Program Requirements
Students come to graduate study in philosophy with varying aims, and the Sage School tries to respond as flexibly as possible, in keeping with the rules of the Graduate School and the need to acquire broad competence in philosophy.
The Graduate School requires six residence units (six semesters of full-time study) for the Ph.D. Most of our Ph.D.s earn at least eight residence units. The maximum credit that can be given for graduate work done elsewhere is two residence units. What credit, if any, will be given for such work is determined by a recommendation from the student's Special Committee, made after the student has completed at least a term's graduate work at Cornell.
The Sage School requires twelve graduate courses, usually taken in the first four terms here. The guidelines to be followed in planning the student's program are outlined below. After course work is completed, the student concentrates on the doctoral dissertation.
The Graduate School requires two examinations. The Examination for Admission to Ph.D. Candidacy (A-Exam) is, in philosophy, an oral examination taken in the sixth semester of residence covering the student's thesis prospectus and relevant literature. The Final Examination for Ph.D. candidates (B-Exam) is an oral examination on the student's completed dissertation.
All students are required, as part of their training, to serve as teaching assistants during some of their time in the program.
Individual Programs
A student's program is worked out with that student's Special Committee, composed of three faculty members of whom one is Chair. The Special Committee recommends the residence credit to be awarded at the end of each semester and administers the A-Exam and the B-Exam. Students taking a minor in another field have a member of that field on their Committee. Students may change their Special Committees and are encouraged to do so as their interests and thesis plans develop. Before the A-Exam, changes in the Special Committee are made simply by submitting a form signed by the involved faculty members; but the Special Committee that administers the A-Exam and supervises the dissertation may be changed only by petition to the Graduate School.
The following guidelines are designed to help students and their Special Committees plan a program of study that will provide the general background needed for research and teaching in philosophy. There are four categories in which students are expected to do some graduate level work:
- History of Philosophy:
Students are expected to do work in four of these divisions. The four units should include at least one, and no more than two, in (1) - (3), and at least one in (5) - (7). The work in at least one of (5) - (7) should be primarily in metaphysics and epistemology. Two courses (or equivalent work) largely devoted to the same philosopher will not count as two units.
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Ancient philosophy other than Plato and Aristotle
- Medieval philosophy
- Rationalists
- Empiricists
- Kant
- Modern philosophy (16th - 18th centuries) other than (5) - (7)
- 19th century
- 20th century
- Metaphysics and Epistemology (including Philosophy of Science, Art, Mathematics, Language, Mind, and Religion). Students are expected to do work in at least two areas in this category.
- Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy. Students are expected to do work in at least one area in this category.
- Logic.Students are expected to demonstrate competence in elementary first-order logic and its meta-theory, and familiarity with the fundamental concepts of set theory. Normally students satisfy the guideline by taking Phil 331, 431, or 436. Questions about the suitability of other courses in the Philosophy Department or courses in other departments should be directed to the Logic Committee.
A student's Special Committee may also recommend or require study of languages needed for research and teaching in one of the student's areas of specialization, or may suggest or require course work in a field other than philosophy.
Library Facilities
Olin Library, designed for research, maintains a comprehensive collection of books and periodicals. Carrels in the stacks are often available to graduate students. Many of the philosophical periodicals, and also the material on temporary reserve for graduate seminars in philosophy, are housed in a room on the sixth floor of the stacks; many philosophy graduate students use this convenient place for study.
Philosophy Journals at Cornell
The Philosophical Review, a leading philosophical journal, has been published quarterly without interruption since it was founded in 1891. It is owned and edited by the faculty of the Sage School: two members of the faculty serve as editors and others are editorial consultants. Faculty members and graduate students in the Sage School receive free subscriptions. Have a look at the Philosophical Review Home Page.
Medieval Philosophy and Theology, a journal housed in the Sage School and published by Cambridge University Press, is devoted to the publication of original scholarship in all areas of medieval philosophy, including logic and natural science, and in medieval theology, including Christian, Jewish, and Islamic. Scott MacDonald, a faculty member of the Sage School, is editor of the journal. For more information, email the journal at mpat@cornell.edu or visit the journal's website.
Financial Support
The Sage School provides full support for all of its graduate students for at least five years. Support normally takes the form of a non-teaching fellowship in the first year and in at least one additional year (usually the fourth). In other years, support is normally in the form of a teaching assistantship. Ordinary teaching assistantships involve an average of fifteen hours of work per week. This work normally involves grading papers and exams and conducting one discussion section per week; it does not involve full responsibility for a course. Senior Teaching Assistants (normally students in the fourth year and beyond) teach First-Year Seminars.
All students are urged to seek any outside support for which they are eligible.
Placement
One of the aims of the graduate program at the Sage School is to help its students compete favorably in the academic job market. Each year a member of the senior faculty serves as Placement Officer, whose role it is to oversee and guide the applications of students looking for jobs in philosophy that year. Among other things, the Placement Officer assists in each candidate's preparation of their CV, coordinates practice interviews and job talks, and accompanies the candidates to the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association.
A record of recent success in placing Cornell graduate students can be found here.
Visiting Philosophers
The Sage School welcomes a significant number of visiting philosophers each year. They come to Cornell under various auspices, including University Lectureships, the A.D. White Professors-at-Large Program, Fellowships of Cornell's Society for the Humanities, and special conferences. Many are invited by the Philosophy Discussion Club (see below), the Ancient Philosophy Program, the Philosophy Students' Association speakers series, or by the Sage School jointly with other units, such as the Cognitive Studies Program.
A list of lectures by philosophers visiting Cornell this year can be found here.
The Discussion Club
During the semester, the Philosophy Department Discussion Club meets approximately once every two weeks to hear and discuss a paper. Typically, a visitor will present a paper on which a member of the department, taken to include graduate students, will provide comments before the floor is opened for general discussion. Papers may also be presented by members of the Discussion Club, whose membership includes the graduate students and faculty in philosophy, undergraduate majors, and interested faculty in other fields. The Discussion Club provides a regular opportunity for its members to learn of each others' and their visitors' work, to become acquainted with a great variety of philosophical issues, and to experience the give and take of informal discussion. Graduate student members are expected to participate and are encouraged both to present papers and to give comments on visiting speakers.