Oxford Maths and Philosophy Students and Applicants

Original post by jones17

Hey guys
Noticed there wasn't much about this course on here and just wanted to know what everyone was doing for A levels etc and reading wise? Where's everyone thinking of applying to and all that and if there's any similar courses i might not have heard of! Good luck with applications everyone!

Original post by Carrotcake18

You can relate your A-Level subjects to philosophy. e.g. since you are studying History of Art you may want to expand on that by reading about Aesthetics.

PM me if you have any specific questions :smile:

Generally decent advice, but, um, what do you do? I'm not sure I'd presume to offer to answer people's questions about a course by PM if I wasn't actually studying the course. :confused:

I'm also not sure I'd advise someone considering maths and philosophy to look much at aesthetics: most British departments will be heavily analytical, and aesthetics (though I'm sure very interesting; I know nothing about it) will be very different to the philosophy most students will have to cover, as well as potentially being quite inaccessible to beginning readers.

Reply 65

Is this degree accredited by the Institute of Mathematics? Would it be possible to study a PhD in Mathematics if one were to study this degree? Would I be restricted in any way, mathematically, as to what I could specialise in?

Thanks.

Reply 66

Original post by Acroamathematics

Is this degree accredited by the Institute of Mathematics? Would it be possible to study a PhD in Mathematics if one were to study this degree? Would I be restricted in any way, mathematically, as to what I could specialise in?

Thanks.

I couldn't find Oxford on the list on their website, but, like, I couldn't find Cambridge, Warwick or UCL on their either, so I think it's just not something a lot of places bother with. The list does include various joint honours courses though, so if anyone gives a crap about accreditation the MathPhil course should be fine.

If you're keen on doing applied stuff, it might involve doing a bunch of non-examinable work in first year and applying to do applied rather than pure options later, but it's pretty possible. See replies to similar questions above.

Reply 67

Original post by dbmag9

I couldn't find Oxford on the list on their website, but, like, I couldn't find Cambridge, Warwick or UCL on their either, so I think it's just not something a lot of places bother with. The list does include various joint honours courses though, so if anyone gives a crap about accreditation the MathPhil course should be fine.

If you're keen on doing applied stuff, it might involve doing a bunch of non-examinable work in first year and applying to do applied rather than pure options later, but it's pretty possible. See replies to similar questions above.

Sorry for the tardy response, I've been hibernating. :tongue:

Thanks, I've a fervent interest in Mathematics, and have realized that I've actually been asking philosophical questions rather than scientific catechisms with premises about logic, proofs and metaphysics, so Math and Phil seems the most appropriate course for me. Got to love a bit of Frege :cool:

.

Reply 68

I've no idea which course to choose.

I find Mathematics/Theoretical Physics/Philosophy exhilarating but I honestly can't decide. I've looked over Number Theory/Topology/Calculus and I find that enjoyable, and I've read a few books from Plato/Nietzsche/Berkeley/Spinoza and Russell/Frege, and I find all of it sublime, but I've no idea which course to choose. Does anyone have any experience with these courses/any emboldening anecdotes. Cheers. :smile:

Reply 69

starkrush

1

Original post by Acroamathematics

I've no idea which course to choose.

I find Mathematics/Theoretical Physics/Philosophy exhilarating but I honestly can't decide. I've looked over Number Theory/Topology/Calculus and I find that enjoyable, and I've read a few books from Plato/Nietzsche/Berkeley/Spinoza and Russell/Frege, and I find all of it sublime, but I've no idea which course to choose. Does anyone have any experience with these courses/any emboldening anecdotes. Cheers. :smile:

You have 8 months to decide, give yourself some more of that time. A few things to think about:

1) If you didn't do a course, would you be able to learn about it in your free time?
2) In terms of maths, are you interested (broadly) in pure or applied? If the former Maths & Philosophy people do plenty of it, but if you like applied (which theoretical physics suggests) then maybe it'd be good to do more by taking maths.
3) How specialised is your interest? If you like one particular aspect of physics then relating to 1), that's more simple to learn out of interest.
4) Looking up full details of the course would be a good idea.

The main thing I'd say, though, is relax. Keep trying to help yourself decide by reading around all of the subjects to try and help make a decision but don't rush it :smile:

Reply 70

How difficult is it to get a place for Mathematics (Post-graduate) research once you've completed this degree? I'm not entirely sure how many people actually go onto PhD's when they've completed their MathPhil, so it'd alleviate my disinclination if someone could inform me. Cheers. :smile:

Reply 71

Original post by Acroamathematics

How difficult is it to get a place for Mathematics (Post-graduate) research once you've completed this degree? I'm not entirely sure how many people actually go onto PhD's when they've completed their MathPhil, so it'd alleviate my disinclination if someone could inform me. Cheers. :smile:

The course is explicitly designed to allow its graduates to proceed to further study, so providing you've done appropriate backing in whatever field you're going to go into I shouldn't imagine it's any more difficult than for those who've done a straight maths degree. I don't know much in the way of specifics but there certainly are MathPhils currently moving on to higher study.

Reply 72

Original post by dbmag9

The course is explicitly designed to allow its graduates to proceed to further study, so providing you've done appropriate backing in whatever field you're going to go into I shouldn't imagine it's any more difficult than for those who've done a straight maths degree. I don't know much in the way of specifics but there certainly are MathPhils currently moving on to higher study.

I was hoping to specialize in a topic dedicated to number theory / complex analysis which is covered fully in the syllabus.

Thank you, that is reassuring. :smile:

Reply 73

Byrks

Does anyone know the modules one can choose from for this course for philosophy (and/or maths)? Is there a fair amount of history of philosophy, including post-Kantian (Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger) modules to choose from in this specific course?

I very much enjoy this combination, and am studying at first year now, considering changing unis. My worry is, however, that due to the combination and it being Oxford, the modules taken are almost only analytic recent philosophy, but my preferences lie much more within the history of philosophy, including post-Kantian continental philosophy.

If anyone has any info about this, I'd be very grateful!

Reply 74

fluteflute

19

Original post by Byrks

Does anyone know the modules one can choose from for this course for philosophy (and/or maths)? Is there a fair amount of history of philosophy, including post-Kantian (Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger) modules to choose from in this specific course?

I very much enjoy this combination, and am studying at first year now, considering changing unis. My worry is, however, that due to the combination and it being Oxford, the modules taken are almost only analytic recent philosophy, but my preferences lie much more within the history of philosophy, including post-Kantian continental philosophy.

If anyone has any info about this, I'd be very grateful!

Here's a list of courses:

•

101 History of Philosophy from Descartes to Kant

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102 Knowledge and Reality

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103 Ethics

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104 Philosophy of Mind

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105 Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Psychology and Neuroscience

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106 Philosophy of Science and Social Science

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107 Philosophy of Religion

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108 The Philosophy of Logic and Language

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109 Aesthetics

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110 Medieval Philosophy: Aquinas

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111 Medieval Philosophy: Duns Scotus and Ockham

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112 The Philosophy of Kant

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113 Post-Kantian Philosophy

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114 Theory of Politics

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115 Plato, Republic

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116 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

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117 Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein

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118 The Later Philosophy of Wittgenstein

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120 Intermediate Philosophy of Physics

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122 Philosophy of Mathematics

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124 Philosophy of Science

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125 Philosophy of Cognitive Science

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199 Thesis

Reply 75

Original post by Byrks

Does anyone know the modules one can choose from for this course for philosophy (and/or maths)? Is there a fair amount of history of philosophy, including post-Kantian (Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger) modules to choose from in this specific course?

I very much enjoy this combination, and am studying at first year now, considering changing unis. My worry is, however, that due to the combination and it being Oxford, the modules taken are almost only analytic recent philosophy, but my preferences lie much more within the history of philosophy, including post-Kantian continental philosophy.

If anyone has any info about this, I'd be very grateful!

fluteflute has posted the list of options; basically everything continental fits into Post-Kantian (113), for which you normally study two philosophers from a small range. Everything else is pretty analytic.

Reply 76

RichE

Original post by Byrks

I very much enjoy this combination, and am studying at first year now, considering changing unis.!

Oxford don't accept transfers though. How would you change to Oxford?

Reply 77

Byrks

Original post by fluteflute

Here's a list of courses:

Original post by dbmag9

fluteflute has posted the list of options; basically everything continental fits into Post-Kantian (113), for which you normally study two philosophers from a small range. Everything else is pretty analytic.

Thanks to both of you, that was pretty helpful. It looks like Oxford is not for me, then, with only one History of Philosophy module and the Post-Kantian module! Oh well, it was worth checking out.

Original post by RichE

Oxford don't accept transfers though. How would you change to Oxford?

Oh, I was talking about possibly applying to start from the first year, although I was just toying with the idea. I'd be incredibly surprised if they accepted transfers! Haha.

Reply 78

Cynical.

Hello. I'm about to enter Year 12 and having started looking around at degree choices really like the look of this course. It very much seems like a 'best of both worlds' sort of fit. However, my sixth form do not offer Further Maths at A-Level (although they do say I may be able to do the AS in Year 13). I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight as to how much of a disadvantage this could prove to be when applying - did you or anyone you know get onto the course without FM/just AS-Level FM? Or should I accept I'll probably have to look elsewhere? Thanks.

Reply 79