Home & News Activities Non-UK Members Joining the Society Archives OUDCE weekend
philosophy courses
The Review Members' Weekend Away Day Friday Group Regional Groups Discussion Forum Chadwick Prize Talbot Prize Contacts Links & Portraits
Gödel
Gödel
 

DEV website instance

Welcome to the Philosophical Society's Web Site

The Philosophical Society is a community of enthusiastic amateur philosophers, associated with the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE). Although the membership includes academics, professionals, and students from various disciplines, the common bond is likely to be participation in philosophy courses offered at OUDCE. Thanks to online courses, our membership extends worldwide.

The Society is not an academic research organisation; its purpose is to advise and encourage anyone who has an interest in philosophy, and to support students who attend classes in philosophy organised by OUDCE. In order to reinforce excellence in scholarship, we hold student essay competitions at the end of every OUDCE term (see Talbot Award in the sidebar), and one open essay competition per year (see Chadwick Award), with monetary awards. To facilitate debate and discussion, there is a 10% fee discount for members at selected OUDCE weekend philosophy courses, as well as several member-run forums (see Friday Group, Regional Groups, Discussion Forum, Members' Weekend, and Away Day), and once a year, we publish for members-only a journal of members' essays, book reviews, and poems, called The Annual Review. A Society membership is required to view the Archives section, which holds records of past events.

The Society began in 1973, when OUDCE was known as The Oxford University Department for External Studies. Most of what we do is based at Rewley House, Oxford, but we organise some events that take place in other UK places, and sometimes in continental Europe. The running of the Society is in the hands of a committee (elected by members at an online Annual General Meeting) which determines policy and advises the President, who, by the terms of our Constitution, is the OUDCE Director of Studies in Philosophy, currently Dr Stephen Law.

For a personal memoir of how the Society began, written by our founder, see our History pages.

Our Activities page gives a full description of what we do and how we do it. Below is our at-a-glance information update. we engage in.

Activity Updates

Last updated: 10 December 2023.

  • Members' Weekend 2024: 14th - 15th September 2024
    The theme of the weekend will be "What Do We Do When We Do Philosophy?" Please see the organiser's call for papers on the event's page.
  • Talbot Prize page updated
    The Talbot Prize page has been brought up-to-date, to show Hilary term winners as well as information on Trinity and Michaelmas term competition.
  • Away Day 2023 recordings
    MP4 video recordings are now available to members via links from the event's archive page.
  • Chadwick Prizes 2023
    The 2023 winning essays are now available via the Chadwick Prizes page.
  • Friday discussion group
    Meets online and in-person every second Friday of the month. See the Friday Group page for further information.
  • Members' Weekend 2023 recordings (available to members only)
    Recorded presentations, texts, and slides are now available on the event's archived page.
  • OUDCE weekend courses available to Philsoc members at a discount
    Academic year 2023-2024 relevant courses have been added to the events programme page.