philosophy - thesis help

Diomedes · Jul 30, 2015

I am sorry to bother the boards - this must be my first post in 18 months or so.

I am currently working towards handing in my PhD thesis in September and as would suit my luck, my supervisor has gone AWOL and given me a series of empty promises. I am wondering if someone would be willing to read a 14,000 word chapter. It is a philosophy PhD analysing the structure and process of the phenomenon of human suffering; really, I am not a philosopher but a classical philologist so this being the most philosophical part of my PhD I'm quite worried about it. This analysis will then be used to explain suffering in the plays of Sophocles.

I'm wondering if there might be anyone who has an MA in philosophy who might be willing to read over it (only this 14k word chapter that deals specifically with the phenomenon of suffering) and just say that it is ok, or of there are any areas in it, logically, that might fall into question. Basically, it uses Heideggerian phenomenology (Division 1 of Sein und Zeit) to form a framework to understand human suffering.

I know this is a long shot, but I would be eternally grateful if there was someone willing to help in this stressful time.

wallfull · Jul 30, 2015

So sorry to hear your advisor is AWOL. Could your department chair help?
I wonder if there's a philosophy organization listserv where you might find more qualified responders? Or, is there a more senior student, postdoc, or recent grad you could pay or barter for a read-through?
Good luck!

atthebeach · Aug 3, 2015

So sorry also. I am unavailable to help, just too swamped right now, and really not qualified for what you need, on the topic of philosophy (my degree is in linguistics).

But when I wrote my dissertation for my Ph.D., I had a team of supervisors with one as lead, and now as a university professor, I see MA students who have several professors support them and do read-throughs. So, in line with the above poster, I wonder if there isn't another professor who could help? I cannot imagine it would be so different in your field that professors would not be willing to help.

Or at the very least you could trade services with a fellow student, for some of the logic and other reads you want (you might have a greater chance of finding someone qualified that way).

I am sure there are people on AW who are well-qualified, but they may not have the time right now, or may not see this post, so while fingers are crossed, as you wait, I suggest you look around there. Hopefully you will find several readers both here and there. And, congratulations on getting this far!

bombergirl69 · Aug 3, 2015

Really agree with athebeach. Mine is in psychology (studied a ton of philosophy in undergrad but certainliy not qualified to read your thesis) Here we do a thesis for masters and dissertation for the doctorate.

As atthebeach said, I also had a committee, so if my advisor was AWOL I would definitely go to other committee members, and then to the dept chair, who could recommend another faculty member who might have expertise in your area. The chair may also help find your AWOL advisor, as it's not considered great form to leave students hanging. My advisor was awesome. In spite of massive personal issues going on, he was always available, amazingly helpful (and patient, so patient with the stats) and when he was not, other members picked up the slack.

Also sending you congrats on getting this far and hope it works out!

Diomedes · Aug 5, 2015

Well, my supervisor has arranged a meeting for Thursday - hopefully it won't be another empty promise.

And sorry for not getting back until now. Thanks for the replies.

I am unfortunately in a difficult position. I am a Classical philologist, which my BA and MA is in, and so my thesis in philosophy is very much orientated on philology. And as part of my education I have Greek, Latin, French, German, and Italian - which are all quoted extensively in the thesis. And I've found that philosophers don't have languages you gain as a philologist - it astonishes me that philosophers can write a thesis on Heidegger with barely any knowledge of German. And this factor has put a lot of the other lecturers off reading my stuff - one did read some, but he doesn't know much about Heidegger so didn't comment on that.

The other difficulty is that I had to transfer from Classics to Philosophy half way through my PhD because my Classics supervisor disagreed with my thesis once Heidegger became involved in interpreting Sophocles. My current supervisor was a secondary supervisor and took over the project - has been very supportive but difficult to get hold of when he's away (and he's been away for over a year!). But he was a student of Derrida and is really knowledgeable on how to tie philosophy with philology, on Heidegger and Sophocles, and has all the languages that I deal with. The transfer from Classics to Philosophy was also messy in that I never really had a new panel of supervisors set up because there wasn't anyone in the philosophy department apart from my supervisor with the skill set to be able to advise me.

My PhD did not go the way I wanted it to....but I'm nearly there!

philosophy - thesis help

Diomedes

wallfull

author, psychologist, speaker

atthebeach

In my happy place

bombergirl69

Diomedes