Witt Spiller is pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Brown University after graduating with his master’s from UMSL in May. (Photo courtesy of Witt Spiller)
Witt Spiller has had plenty to keep him busy since May when he completed his master’s degree in philosophy and took part in commencement at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
He and his fiancé, Lexie, packed up and moved 1,100 miles away to Rhode Island in June. They were also preparing to get married, which they did on Monday in Burlington, Vermont. On Wednesday, Spiller will officially begin his first day of class in the PhD program at Brown University.
Billy Dunaway, an associate professor, chair of UMSL’s Department of Philosophy and one of Spiller’s mentors, wasn’t sure how his former student was managing to handle the logistics of it all – particularly with the wedding so close to the start of the new semester.
“I didn’t advise him to do that,” Dunaway said, jokingly. “But I wish him the best.”
Once he gets through the weekend, Dunaway has no doubt about Spiller’s ability to succeed at the Ivy League institution in what is considered one of the top 25 philosophy doctoral programs in the country.
“He is always eager to improve what he is working on and also develop new ideas,” Dunaway said. “There are two parts that go into research and philosophy. One is identifying when you have an idea that’s original and interesting and worth pursuing, and then the second part is being willing to sit and do the dirty work and write the paper. You have to situate it in the literature, so you have to read a lot, you have to develop it and defend it in ways that maybe you didn’t see you had to do when you first thought of it. He is eager to do both. I don’t think anybody’s ever going to say he’s not enthusiastic about developing new ideas.”
Spiller found his way into philosophy by accident, and even then, he wasn’t sure it was where he should end up.
After growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, he decided to attend the University of Vermont. He planned to pursue environmental law and was attracted by a program at the university that would allow him to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree in five years.
But not long after starting at Vermont, Spiller began having second thoughts, afraid he might be pigeon-holing himself by being too specialized. He was enrolled in a philosophy class, and his professor – who also happened to have a law degree – wound up offering him some advice.
“He told me, ‘You want to be more general,’” Spiller said. “‘Just major in philosophy and then apply to law schools. Specialize later.”
That conversation led Spiller to consider an alternate path, and he wound up discovering a passion for philosophy.
“I guess I kind of always have an itch to really understand things at a more fundamental level,” Spiller said. “Those are the questions that philosophy asks and wondering about the basic structure of reality. I’m also very interested in ethics in general. I find it really important. I think about it a lot.”
As he got deeper into his major, Spiller also started to rethink whether he wanted to be a lawyer at all. Nor was he sure he was ready to commit to a PhD program – a potential next step if he wanted to continue in philosophy.
Spiller’s professors at Vermont suggested an alternative path.
“They told me that the best place to get a master’s in philosophy with a concentration in meta-ethics is UMSL,” Spiller said.
The UMSL master’s program offered the chance to work with and learn from nationally recognized faculty members, including Professor Eric Wiland and Dunaway in Spiller’s chosen area of meta-ethics, but it required a shorter time commitment than a doctoral program. He also was able to receive full funding, so he didn’t have to incur any extra costs to find out if he wanted to remain in philosophy as a career.
Spiller’s time at UMSL clarified his thinking.
“About a year in, I realized I don’t think I could see myself doing anything else,” he said. “I appreciated the close, personal contact with professors. The size of the program made it such that I basically had unlimited access, and I’m pretty annoying, so I would take a paper to Eric, take comments on it, then I take the paper to Billy, and get his comments on it, and then fix them up, and then go back to Eric. So, the size of the program allowed me to have close personal relationships with the professors. I felt like they knew my work well, and they were able to guide me more properly.”
Spiller earned praise for his writing, including winning the UMSL Philosophy Graduate Munson Essay Prize for his paper, “Protecting the Parity: In Defense of Companions in Guilt.”
He got involved in other ways while at UMSL, serving as the president of the Philosophers’ Forum, and in that role he coordinated regular department outings for “Eudaimonia Hour” – what others might call happy hour – to partake in philosophical discussions as well as socialize with colleagues. He also had the opportunity to organize the 19th annual Gateway Graduate Philosophy Conference.
The theme for the April 25 event was “The Wonder of Language,” and Sam Berstler, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Career Development Chair and assistant professor of philosophy at MIT, delivered the keynote address. Students from across the St. Louis region and as far away as California came to the Millennium Student Center to take part.
“That was amazing,” Spiller said. “It taught me how to plan a conference, which is a super valuable skill, and it allowed me to network.”
By then, Spiller had already decided to pursue his doctorate. With Wiland’s help, he identified Brown as an ideal setting – one aligned with his interests. He still thought it was a long shot, but he applied, was accepted and received full funding with a good stipend.
He knows his decision to go to UMSL was critical in making that possible.
“It really changed my life and sort of set my positive trajectory,” Spiller said. “I am 100% confident that I would not have gotten into Brown if I was just applying from undergraduate. If I had not taken an extra step to get my master’s and develop my ability to be a philosopher, I don’t think I could have set my sights so high and achieved.”
The work of earning his PhD and eventually building a career as a philosopher in academia is just getting started. But Dunaway is confident Spiller will find success.
“You have to really enjoy philosophy to thrive in it because that’s going to provide you with the motivation to sit down and work every day,” Dunaway said. “He clearly has that enthusiasm. People can read more and learn more literature and develop their writing skills as time goes on, but you can’t really teach people to have the enthusiasm for doing philosophy.”
