Philosophy Supercurriculars

Hey fellow philosophers,

This page is for sharing any supercurriculars (videos, talks, books, podcasts, films, summer schools) you find that would help out a student of philosophy to further their study.

I'll start us off:
Video - Massolit lectures, 'Modern Philosophy' Series: https://youtu.be/vib2rqJKS08?si=B65aC0iktliCHElS
Talk - I haven't found any yet, but I'm hoping to visit some in the summer
Book - My latest read is the Oxford edition of 'Defense of Socrates' which contains Euthyphro, which I loved!
Podcast - Every morning I listen to an episode of 'Philosophy Bites'
Film - The most philosophical film I think I've watched would have to be 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'. I also liked Slavoj Zizek's (oft-memed) 'A Pervert's Guide to Ideology'
Summer schools - I'm hoping to go to UCL's Ancient Philosophy Summer School

I'll add every time I find something new that's worth sharing

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

Joe312

The history of philosophy without any gaps is great.

Great lecture series here too (for undergrads and above): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yat0ZKduW18&list=PL9GwT4_YRZdBf9nIUHs0zjrnUVl-KBNSM&ab_channel=wheatoncollege

Reply 2

kingsleyartha

Original post

by equalssign

Hey fellow philosophers,
This page is for sharing any supercurriculars (videos, talks, books, podcasts, films, summer schools) you find that would help out a student of philosophy to further their study.
I'll start us off:
Video - Massolit lectures, 'Modern Philosophy' Series: https://youtu.be/vib2rqJKS08?si=B65aC0iktliCHElS
Talk - I haven't found any yet, but I'm hoping to visit some in the summer
Book - My latest read is the Oxford edition of 'Defense of Socrates' which contains Euthyphro, which I loved!
Podcast - Every morning I listen to an episode of 'Philosophy Bites'
Film - The most philosophical film I think I've watched would have to be 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'. I also liked Slavoj Zizek's (oft-memed) 'A Pervert's Guide to Ideology'
Summer schools - I'm hoping to go to UCL's Ancient Philosophy Summer School
I'll add every time I find something new that's worth sharing

Hi - I am applying to Oxford for philosophy (and Russian) for 2026 entry, which I assume you might be doing/have done.

These are some of the things that I have done for philosophy

Books read
Hegel: Past masters by Peter Singer
How to read David Hume by Simon Blackburn
The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

This summer I am going to read: Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals by Kant, Utilitarianism by Mill, Inventing right and wrong by J.L. Mackie

Competitions

•

ISRSA Philosophy essay competition 2022 (which I won overall). About the nature of liberty

•

Immerse essay competition- merit. About what constitutes a good person-> I said, basically, following rules

•

Northeastern university essay competition-> finalist

•

Royal institute of philosophy competition-> on the nature of objective values

•

MASSOLIT video essay competition -> not heard back yet.

I run the school's philosophy publication
Member of philosophy reading group where we have read about Aristotle and the rejection of the moral prudential distinction, Nietzsche and Hegel's views on tragedy, Peter Singer's practical ethics, and divine simplicity theory.

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Surely the best thing you could do is just to read philosophy :smile:

Reply 4

Joe312

Original post

by kingsleyartha

Hi - I am applying to Oxford for philosophy (and Russian) for 2026 entry, which I assume you might be doing/have done.
These are some of the things that I have done for philosophy
Books read
Hegel: Past masters by Peter Singer
How to read David Hume by Simon Blackburn
The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
This summer I am going to read: Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals by Kant, Utilitarianism by Mill, Inventing right and wrong by J.L. Mackie
Competitions

•

ISRSA Philosophy essay competition 2022 (which I won overall). About the nature of liberty

•

Immerse essay competition- merit. About what constitutes a good person-> I said, basically, following rules

•

Northeastern university essay competition-> finalist

•

Royal institute of philosophy competition-> on the nature of objective values

•

MASSOLIT video essay competition -> not heard back yet.

Just remember when reading Kant that if you're struggling to understand - that's mostly his fault. Utilitarianism and Mackie are much much easier. If you want to read a classic that isn't so well known in general but philosophers really respect and is quite dense and challenging, try Sidgwick's 'the methods of ethics'.

Reply 5

kingsleyartha

Original post

by Joe312

I have a decent amount of knowledge of Kantian ethics so I'm not actually finding the groundwork as difficult as I would have thought- it is also meant to be his most accessible work. I will probably read Sidgwick at some point- I have heard he is good on the meta-ethics standpoint

Reply 6

sfp04

As artful_lounger said, the best thing you can do is read philosophy; on a philosophy degree, the great majority of your time, work-wise, will be spent reading. It’s great if podcasts and videos work for you, but ultimately they’re no substitute for reading.

When it comes to introductory reading, there are, broadly speaking, two main approaches (obviously not mutually exclusive if you have time for both). First, topic-based introductions to philosophy: in particular, I’ll mention The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, What Does It All Mean? by Thomas Nagel (at a more advanced level, if you enjoy this, you’d probably also like Nagel’s collection of essays Mortal Questions which is one of the most accessible examples of high-quality academic philosophical writing), and Think by Simon Blackburn, but there are many other good options besides. You could also then read introductions to particular subfields of philosophy which interest you; e.g. for moral philosophy, I’d recommend Morality by Bernard Williams — it’s on the advanced side for an introductory volume, but that’s because it’s very philosophically rich in its own right.

The second approach is to read some of the more accessible classic texts in the history of the subject. Typical recommendations would include certain of Plato’s dialogues (those in the collection that the OP mentions would probably be especially good, and similarly those in the Hackett collection Five Dialogues), Descartes’ Meditations, Hume’s Enquiry, and Mill’s Utilitarianism and On Liberty.

I personally suspect that it is usually better to at least start with the first approach, i.e. to read at least one or two topic-based introductions, but others may of course find that delving straight into the history of philosophy works better for them.