Seminars
Participants are taught in small seminar groups of up to 12 students, and receive two one-on-one tutorials with their tutor.
Sunday
Seminar 1: Introducing metaphysics as a branch of philosophy
Seminar 2: What is the nature of objects and their properties? Do properties exist apart from their objects?
Monday
Seminar 3: What ontological status do abstract objects like numbers or shapes have?
Seminar 4: Mereology is the theory of parts and wholes. Are there fundamental entities out of which everything else is composed?
Tuesday
Seminar 5: How should we think of change? Does change exist independent of time?
Seminar 6: Are cause and effect genuine phenomena? What is it for one thing to cause another?
Wednesday
Seminar 7: Is time real, and does it have a direction?
Seminar 8: What and when is a person? Can an animal, an AI be a person?
Thursday
Seminar 9: Modality examines the nature of necessity and possibility. What is necessarily the case, what is possible?
Seminar 10: How should we think of absences, omissions, nothingness? How can something that isn’t exist?
Friday
Seminar 11: Will science eventually replace metaphysics?
Seminar 12: What is there and why? Looking back at the week.
Programme timetable
The daily timetable will normally be as follows:
Saturdays
14.00–16.30 - Registration
16.30–17.00 - Orientation meeting
17.00–17.30 - Classroom orientation for tutor and students
17.30–18.00 - Drinks reception
18.00–20.00 - Welcome dinner
Sundays – Fridays
09.00–10.30 - Seminar
10.30–11.00 - Tea/coffee break
11.00–12.30 - Seminar
12.30–13.30 - Lunch
13.30–18.00 - Afternoons are free for tutorials, individual study, course-related field trips or exploring the many places of interest in and around Oxford.
18.00–19.00 - Dinner (There is a formal gala dinner every Friday to close each week of the programme)
A range of optional social events will be offered throughout the summer school. These are likely to include: a quiz night, visit to historic pubs in Oxford, visit to Christ Church for Evensong and after-dinner talks and discussions.