{"id":3040,"date":"2020-05-13T10:14:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T15:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/?page_id=3040"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:39:29","slug":"departmental-distinction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/departmental-distinction\/","title":{"rendered":"Departmental Distinction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection><div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Departmental Distinction is awarded to graduating seniors who have demonstrated excellence in our discipline.\u00a0 This is the highest honor the Department can award. The Department awards Distinction according to the criteria below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Criteria for Departmental Distinction in Philosophy<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two primary criteria for awarding Distinction are (i) the candidate\u2019s GPA in philosophy and (ii) the quality of the candidate\u2019s philosophical writing as shown by a portfolio of papers submitted for Distinction.\u00a0 Excellence in philosophical writing is characterized by:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clarity in the statement of a position,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">care in the analysis of an issue,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cogency of argument,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">overall coherence in statement and argument,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the range of considerations brought to bear on the issue,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the imagination, creativity, and style with which all of this is done, and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the display of intellectual virtues, such as humility regarding what one knows and respect of those with whom one disagrees\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While quality of philosophical writing is the primary criteria, participation in, or leadership of, extra-curricular philosophy events such as Phil Forum or Phi Sigma Tau may also figure in the Department\u2019s evaluation as secondary considerations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Procedure for Applying<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The application for distinction in philosophy shall consist of a portfolio of philosophy papers that are of superior philosophical quality. The portfolio will normally consist of two or three papers that students have written for their courses. Students are encouraged to revise their papers in accordance with the instructor\u2019s comments and with the student\u2019s further reflection. A paper used in a Distinction portfolio may also be submitted for the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/the-ringstad-prize\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ringstad Prize<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (but it will need to be submitted separately).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Portfolio papers will be evaluated by the Chair and at least one other member of the Department. They will present their evaluation to the Department as a basis for its vote. <strong>The Chair will invite all seniors with a GPA in philosophy of 3.5 or higher to apply for Distinction.<\/strong> Seniors with a GPA in philosophy lower than a 3.5 will not ordinarily be considered for Distinction unless there are exceptional circumstances; such students should discuss their circumstances with the Chair before the deadline.\u00a0 The entire sequence of Great Conversation, Science Conversation, or Public Affairs Conversation can count towards one elective of the major. So, for students who are counting one of these programs towards their philosophy major the Department will consider their GPA in their entire sequence of the program as their GPA for the elective course.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>All submissions must be e-mailed in Word format electronically to <strong>Mike Fuerstein<\/strong> <a href=\"mailto:fuerstei@stolaf.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fuerstei@stolaf.edu <\/a><strong>and<\/strong> <a href=\"philosophy@stolaf.edu\">philosophy@stolaf.edu<\/a> <b>by 12:00 noon on Monday, April 25th, 2025. <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Put the words &#8220;DISTINCTION APPLICATION&#8221; in the subject line.\u00a0 All papers must be in MS Word (.docx) format (in google docs go to file-&gt;download as-&gt;MS Word (.docx), and must include a cover page listing the author&#8217;s name and the title of the paper.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><!-- begin-migrated-from-panel-builder --><!-- end-migrated-from-panel-builder --><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Departmental Distinction is awarded to graduating seniors who have demonstrated excellence in our discipline.\u00a0 This is the highest honor the Department can award. The Department awards Distinction according to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4393,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3040","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5125,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3040\/revisions\/5125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}