Should I start reading philosophy before applying?
Absolutely; but not, or at least not directly, to impress the tutors who will be handling your application. You should read with at least two aims in mind. One is to find out a bit more about what philosophers study, and what kinds of disciplined reflection are involved. The motivation here is to find out a bit more about whether philosophical study is really for you; whether the questions excite you, and whether you are stimulated by the attempts to answer them. The other is to provide yourself with a range of arguments and questions to test your own thinking against. This disciplined reflection – trying to come up with the best counter-arguments against what you have read, then thinking what objections might be measured against your own arguments – will help to develop the kinds of skills that we will be looking for.
Suggested reading at this stage may take one of two forms; it may be designed precisely as introductory material, presenting an outline of the range of things philosophers study, or it may ask you to engage with a philosophical text, whether ‘classic’ or modern, more directly. Even those who write ‘introductory’ philosophy texts will usually make suggestions for further work, which may involve reading some classic philosophical text directly, or working with some suggested questions. Philosophy is something to be done rather than to be learnt about; someone with a mere curiosity for things people have thought in the past is unlikely to be in line for a place to study philosophy.
Some suggestions for further reading can be found below:
Don’t try to read a lot; instead read slowly and carefully, assessing arguments as you go, and trying to produce counter-arguments of your own. Most introductory books will contain their own suggestions to broaden and deepen your studies, and many classic texts are freely available, sometimes in older translations, on the internet.
In addition to the books suggested by Oxford, the following have been recommended by other university Philosophy departments:
Original texts can be daunting, but the following are frequently recommended:
See also: