Washington and Lee University
The Philosophy Department has four awards.
The Edward Dodd Award is awarded to the graduating senior with the best Honors Thesis. The award may be shared.
The Edward Dodd award is given to the graduating senior who, in the study of philosophy, shows most clearly the qualities demonstrated by Edward Allen Dodd Jr., Class of 1967. Among these qualities are academic excellence motivated by concern for ideas for their own sake, vigor in intellectual pursuit and resilience in the face of criticism, goodwill toward others encouraging them to higher achievement, and courage in the face of misfortune. The recipient of the award is announced during the commencement exercises, and the recipient's name is engraved on a memorial plaque in the philosophy seminar room.
Recent awardees:
The Young Scholarship, previously awarded to the graduating senior with the best Senior Thesis, is awarded to the major or minor with the best paper in an upper-level philosophy course. The scholarship may be shared.
The Young Scholarship, endowed by Henry Young of New York, is conferred upon the student attaining the highest record in a selected course in philosophy.
Recent awardees:
The Charles Thomas Boggs Prize in Philosophy is awarded to the graduating senior with the best thesis or paper on a major figure or subject in philosophy taught by the late Professor Chuck Boggs, Class of 1966 and Professor of Philosophy at Washington and Lee University from 1970 until his retirement in 2007. For past students' and friends' recollections of Prof. Boggs, see here.
Among those majors figures and subjects taught by Professor Boggs were Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, ethics and the environment, the philosophy of nature, and philosophy and literature. The prize is in the form of a book chosen by the Philosophy faculty.
Recent awardees:
This scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate excellence in the annual intercollegiate Ethics Bowl debate competition. The scholarship may be shared.
Endowed in 1970 by friends and a bequest, this scholarship honors a former University professor and debate coach and is intended to assist one or more deserving students who demonstrate excellence, or the potential for excellence, in intercollegiate debate.
Recent awardees: