What is it? Is it a click beetle?

Just one? Good luck, my soon to be competent philospher. Hey, what distinguishes a real docter of philosphy from all them other poser PhDs?

How does one determine competency in philosophy, anyway? Prove that God doesn't exist, then prove that black is actually white and vice versa, then proceed to get killed at the next zebra crossing?

Ha! That's about right. Assuming that this is at least a half-serious question, for us at Vandy it means demonstrating mainly historical competency. We have to show a general grasp of a historical period (in my case, 20th century philosophy) and a grasp of how a particular field of philosophy (for me, social and political philosophy) developed over time. I'm turning in two essays: one on the relation between language and reality in 20th century thought and the other on the relation between democracy and education in Plato, Rousseau, Kant, and Dewey.

Hey, what distinguishes a real docter of philosphy from all them other poser PhDs?

Lack of practical knowledge. Duh.

The comps come before the thesis. They basically show that I've got a question worth developing into a dissertation project, that I know how to trace the importance of the question historically, and that I can point to the consequences of the question for the future of philosophy and (hopefully) life outside of philosophy.

Jeff, We're in the same boat! Weird! I am working on my comps right now... I finished writing but I will officially turn it in on Tuesday. We do our comps before our dissert. I'm done with my thesis. So maybe I'm behind you on the mileage but I got ya beat on the academics. Now that makes for a more equal relationship, right? have a good weekend, party hard after finishing your comps!!!! i know I AM

Jeff, my comps are 80 pages. How about you? It was nauseating to write all of that but hey, I was sitting on my arse so much it made running fun!

Just emailed them in! Off to run!