The Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford was founded in 2001. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. The faculty is located next to

Somerville College Somerville College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The college's liberal tone derives from its f ...

on Woodstock Road. As of 2021, it is ranked 1st in the UK and 2nd in the English-speaking world by the ''

Philosophical Gourmet Report The ''Philosophical Gourmet Report'', also known as the ''Leiter Report'' or ''PGR'', is a ranking of graduate programs in philosophy in the English language, English-speaking world. It was founded by philosophy and law professor Brian Leiter and ...

'', as well as 4th in the world by the

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

. It is additionally ranked first in the UK by the ''Complete University Guide'', the ''Guardian'', the ''Times'', and the ''Independent''.

History of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford

The present-day Faculty was formerly a sub-faculty of the Faculty of Literae Humaniores (founded in 1913), though the teaching of philosophy at Oxford dates back to medieval times. The Faculty boasts over 50 full-time philosophers in permanent posts, with at least another 50 fixed-term, emeritus and associate members. Today, it is housed within Oxford's Humanities Division. Some of the world's most prominent philosophers have studied (and taught) at Oxford, including

Duns Scotus John Duns Scotus ( ; , "Duns the Scot"; – 8 November 1308) was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher and theologian. He is considered one of the four most important Christian philosopher-t ...

Thomas Bradwardine Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1300 – 26 August 1349) was an English cleric, scholar, mathematician, physicist, courtier and, very briefly, Archbishop of Canterbury. As a celebrated scholastic philosopher and doctor of theology, he is often ca ...

William of Ockham William of Ockham or Occam ( ; ; 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and theologian, who was born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medie ...

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, Christianity, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, and a theology professor at the University of Oxfor ...

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...

, John Norris,

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 4 February Dual dating, 1747/8 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.

5 February 1748 Old Style and New Style dates, N.S. 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

– 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of mo ...

, Henry Longueville Mansel,

Thomas Hill Green Thomas Hill Green (7 April 183626 March 1882), known as T. H. Green, was an English philosopher, political radical and temperance reformer, and a member of the British idealism movement. Like all the British idealists, Green was influe ...

F. H. Bradley Francis Herbert Bradley (30 January 184618 September 1924) was a British idealist philosopher. His most important work was ''Appearance and Reality'' (1893). Life Bradley was born at Clapham, Surrey, England (now part of the Greater London ar ...

Edward Caird Edward Caird (; 23 March 1835 – 1 November 1908) was a Scottish philosopher. He was a holder of LLD, DCL, and DLitt. Life The younger brother of the theologian John Caird, he was the son of engineer John Caird, the proprietor of Caird ...

and in more recent times

Peter Strawson Sir Peter Frederick Strawson (; 23 November 1919 – 13 February 2006) was an English philosopher who spent most of his career at the University of Oxford. He was the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Magdalen College, O ...

Galen Strawson Galen John Strawson (; born 1952) is a British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics (including free will, panpsychism, the mind–body problem, and the self), John Locke, David Hume, Im ...

, A. J. Ayer,

Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...

Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest ...

Gilbert Ryle Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900 – 6 October 1976) was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase " ghost in the machine". Some of Ryle's ideas in philosophy of mind have been ca ...

, Genevieve Lloyd,

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

J. L. Austin John Langshaw Austin (26 March 1911 – 8 February 1960) was an English philosopher of language and leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy, best known for developing the theory of speech acts. Austin pointed out that we use lan ...

Celia Green Celia Elizabeth Green (born 1935) is a British parapsychologist and writer on parapsychology. Biography Green's parents were both primary school teachers, who together authored a series of geography textbooks which became known as The Green G ...

Bernard Williams Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (21 September 1929 – 10 June 2003) was an English Ethics, moral philosopher. His publications include ''Problems of the Self'' (1973), ''Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy'' (1985), ''Shame and Necessit ...

Philippa Foot Philippa Ruth Foot (; 3 October 1920 – 3 October 2010) was an English philosopher and one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics. Her work was inspired by Aristotelian ethics. Along with Judith Jarvis Thomson, she is credited with in ...

, Michael A. Smith,

Onora O'Neill Onora Sylvia O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve (born 23 August 1941) is a British philosopher and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Early life and education Onora Sylvia O'Neill was born on 23 August 1941 in Aughafatten. The daug ...

Michael Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (; 27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." H ...

Derek Parfit Derek Antony Parfit (; 11 December 1942 – 2 January 2017) was a British philosopher who specialised in personal identity, rationality, and ethics. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential moral philosophers of the lat ...

, and

Elizabeth Anscombe Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophi ...

. Eminent philosophers have taught at Oxford, including

Robert Grosseteste Robert Grosseteste ( ; ; 8 or 9 October 1253), also known as Robert Greathead or Robert of Lincoln, was an Kingdom of England, English statesman, scholasticism, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of ...

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions ...

, and still others, including

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

Saul Kripke Saul Aaron Kripke (; November 13, 1940 – September 15, 2022) was an American analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher and logician. He was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and emer ...

and

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, computer scientist, and figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He contributed to the studies of philosophy of ...

have come to Oxford to deliver the

John Locke Lectures The John Locke Lectures are a series of annual lectures in philosophy given at the University of Oxford. Named for British philosopher John Locke, the Locke Lectures are the world's most prestigious lectures in philosophy, and are among the world' ...

, the Gareth Evans Memorial Lectures and other established lectures and lecture series. The Faculty has the following statutory professorships in philosophy: *The White's Professorship of Moral Philosophy (founded in 1621) *The

Waynflete Professorship The Waynflete Professorships are four professorial fellowships at the University of Oxford endowed by Magdalen College and named in honour of the college founder William of Waynflete, who had a great interest in science. These professorships are s ...

of Metaphysical Philosophy (founded in 1859) *The

Wykeham Professor The University of Oxford has three statutory professorships named after William of Wykeham, who founded New College. Logic The Wykeham Professorship in Logic was established in 1859, although it was not known as the Wykeham chair until later. ...

ship of Logic (founded in 1859) *The Nolloth Professorship of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion (founded in 1920) *The Professorship of Ancient Philosophy (founded in 1966) *The Wilde Professorship of Mental Philosophy (founded in 2000); formerly the Wilde Readership in Mental Philosophy (founded in 1898) *The Uehiro Professorship of Practical Ethics (founded in 2003).

Henry Wilde Prize

The Henry Wilde Prize in Philosophy is awarded annually for an outstanding performance in Philosophy.

Research centres

Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics

The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics was founded in 2003 by Eiji Uehiro, with the intention to "encourage and support debate and deeper rational reflection" on

practical ethics Applied ethics is the practical aspect of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadership. For example, bio ...

. Annually, it hosts the Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics, a series of three lectures. The centre works to raise public awareness and engagement with ethical issues, through public lecturing and engagement, commenting and consulting in the media, in the United Kingdom and internationally. The director of the centre is Roger Crisp.

Future of Humanity Institute

The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) was founded by

Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom ( ; ; born 10 March 1973) is a Philosophy, philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, superin ...

in 2005 to "assess how dangerous AI and other potential threats might be to the human species". It was closed down on 16 April 2024, having "faced increasing administrative headwinds within the Faculty of Philosophy". The Institute's final report described a "gradual suffocation by Faculty bureaucracy", noting that " e flexible, fast-moving approach of the institute did not function well with the rigid rules and slow decision-making of the surrounding organization". In May 2024, the independent Oxford student newspaper, Cherwell, described shuttering of FHI with the headline "Institute accused of ‘eugenics on steroids’ shut down by Oxford University".

Global Priorities Institute

The Global Priorities Institute was founded in 2018, to investigate the question of "how to do the most good".

Notable current members

* John Broome * Harvey Brown * Roger Crisp *

A. C. Grayling Anthony Clifford Grayling (; born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. He was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and spent most of his childhood there and in Nyasaland (now Malawi). Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philos ...

Terence Irwin Terence Henry Irwin Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (; born 21 April 1947), usually cited as T. H. Irwin, is a scholar and philosopher specializing in ancient Greek philosophy and the history of ethics (i.e., the history of Western moral philo ...

* Brian Leftow * A.W. Moore *

William MacAskill William David MacAskill (' Crouch; born 24 March 1987) is a Scottish philosopher and author, as well as one of the originators of the effective altruism movement. He was a Research Fellow at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of ...

* Jeff McMahan * Stephen Mulhall *

Toby Ord Toby David Godfrey Ord (born July 1979) is an Australian philosopher. In 2009 he founded Giving What We Can, an international society whose members pledge to donate at least 10% of their income to effective charities, and is a key figure in th ...

* Janet Radcliffe Richards * Gonzalo Rodríguez Pereyra * Julian Savulescu *

Richard Sorabji Sir Richard Rustom Kharsedji Sorabji, (born 8 November 1934) is a British historian of ancient Western philosophy, and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at King's College London. He is the nephew of Cornelia Sorabji. Life Richard Sorabji was b ...

* Ralph C. S. Walker *

Timothy Williamson Timothy Williamson (born 6 August 1955) is a British philosopher whose main research interests are in philosophical logic, philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics. He is the former Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of O ...

Mark Wrathall Mark Wrathall (born February 1, 1965) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a fellow and tutor at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is considered a leading interpreter of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Wrathall is feat ...

Notable past members

Ronald Dworkin at the Brooklyn Book Festival

* Michael Ayers *

Simon Blackburn Simon Walter Blackburn (born 12 July 1944) is an English philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language. More recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts ...

* David Charles *Sir

Ronald Dworkin Ronald Myles Dworkin (; December 11, 1931 – February 14, 2013) was an American legal philosopher, jurist, and scholar of United States constitutional law. At the time of his death, he was Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at ...

Peter Geach Peter Thomas Geach (29 March 1916 – 21 December 2013) was a British philosopher who was Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. His areas of interest were philosophical logic, ethics, history of philosophy, philosophy of religion and ...

John Hawthorne John Patrick Hawthorne (born 25 May 1964) is an English philosopher, currently serving as Professor of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He is r ...

Stuart Hampshire Sir Stuart Newton Hampshire (1 October 1914 – 13 June 2004) was an English philosopher, literary critic and university administrator. He was one of the antirationalist Oxford thinkers who gave a new direction to moral and political thought ...

* R.M. Hare * J.L. Mackie *

Christopher Peacocke Christopher Arthur Bruce Peacocke (born 22 May 1950) is a British philosopher known for his work in philosophy of mind and epistemology. His recent publications, in the field of epistemology, have defended a version of rationalism. Biography ...

* W.D. Ross *

Colin McGinn Colin McGinn (born 10 March 1950) is a British philosopher. He has held teaching posts and professorships at University College London, the University of Oxford, Rutgers University, and the University of Miami. McGinn is best known for his work ...

*Sir

Geoffrey Warnock Sir Geoffrey James Warnock (16 August 19238 October 1995) was an English philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Before his knighthood (in the 1986 New Year Honours), he was commonly known as G. J. Warnock. Life Warnock was born ...

Mary Warnock Helen Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, (née Wilson; 14 April 1924 – 20 March 2019) was an English philosopher of ethics, morality, philosophy of education, education, and philosophy of mind, mind, and a writer on existentialism. She is best ...

, Baroness Warnock *

David Wiggins David Wiggins (born 1933) is an English moral philosopher, metaphysician, and philosophical logician working especially on identity and issues in meta-ethics. Biography David Wiggins was born on 8 March 1933 in London, the son of Norman an ...

Sybil Wolfram Sybil Wolfram (born Sybille Misch; 1 July 1931 – 26 July 1993) was an English philosopher and writer, of Austrian Jewish origin. She studied at Somerville College, Oxford and was a Fellow and Tutor in philosophy at Lady Margaret Hall at Univ ...

References

{{Authority control Departments of the University of Oxford 2001 establishments in England Philosophy departments in the United Kingdom