PHILOSOPHY
When studying philosophy, you get to indulge your imagination and your wildest thoughts about the world, yet simultaneously you have to rely on logic and rational arguments to prove the validity (or otherwise) or your wildest dreams. This is one of the (many!) reasons why philosophy is a unique subject to learn. You can think about and argue for ideas which on an every-day basis people don’t even bother to question, like whether we really exist, if we are always dreaming, if you are the same person as when you were born, whether we have free will to choose what actions we do – and the only rules of the game are that you need to think and argue clearly or logically…. Click to read more advice for philosophers
Debate Chamber Philosophy Events 2010:
Would you like to hold a philosophy event in your school?
Debate Chamber also conducts in-school workshops, which can be closely tailored to the needs and abilities of your students. If you are a teacher and interested in this opportunity please click here.
Philosophy Tutors
Bob Hargrave has been teaching Philosophy in Oxford since 1977. Since then he has worked at many Oxford colleges, and is currently Lecturer in Philosophy at Balliol. He has acquired a wide range of philosophical interests over the years, and is currently working on the interface between Grammar and Logic. You can see some of the relevant ideas made accessible at: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball0888/
Lewis Turner graduated from New College, Oxford in the summer of 2009 with a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. His academic interests include conflict in international relations, moral and political philosophy and historical and contemporary left-wing thought. Having lived in the Middle East, he has also developed a keen interest in the politics and society of the region.
Alex Worsnip is a postgraduate philosophy student at St Anne’s College, Oxford University, specialising in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of Kant. He is writing a thesis on the connection between intuitions and transcendental arguments in delivering moral knowledge. He holds a first class degree in PPE, also from Oxford.
Courtney Cox is a doctoral student in philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, writing on issues of ethics and time. She holds a BA from Yale University (Electrical Engineering; and PPE) and a BPhil (Philosophy) from Oxford. In addition to ethics, her interests include Chinese language and area studies, and nuclear energy/nonproliferation policy.
Feedback from previous philosophy events
“A brilliant event – the discussion was very free and exciting.”
“ I really enjoyed it and think I learnt a lot”
“The day was very clear, engaging and entertaining”
“Wow – I learnt so much…I have been trying to understand this for ages and now I do!”
“I enjoyed the relaxed environment”
“The day was great and the material really well explained”
“Brilliant introduction to more advanced philosophy”
“Very interesting and didn’t assume prior knowledge of the topics”
“Extremely useful for helping me think about university”