Exeter Prospectus - Exeter College

A corner of the Front QuadA Philosophy tutorial The Mound in the snow Graduation DayJohn Kufuor,President of theRepublic of Ghana andChair of the AfricanUnion in 2007-08 cameto Exeter College in1961, having beencalled to the Bar atLincoln’s Inn in thesame year. He tookhis BA in Philosophy,Politics and Economicsin 1964. He cameto power in thepresidential ballotin December 2000,marking the firstpeaceful, democratictransfer of powerin Ghana sinceindependence.uk/prospective_students/org_chor_rep.shtml.Ability to play an instrument is desirablebut not essential. The Faculty helps allundergraduates reading music with the cost ofinstrumental or vocal lessons.PhilosophyTutor: Dr Antony EagleLecturer: to be appointedThe CourseThe Philosophy Faculty at Oxford is one ofthe strongest in the world, ranked second inthe English-speaking world in the most recentauthoritative survey, and Philosophy is oneof the most widely studied subjects at Exeter,in part because it is an element of so manydifferent degree courses. Students who studyphilosophy as part of their degree will bestudying topics of perennial interest, throughthe close analysis and assessment of theviews and arguments given by philosophers,including the great figures from the history ofphilosophy. They will also acquire the abilityto formulate their own views in a rigorousand persuasive way, backed up by rationalargument. Requirements in philosophydiffer across the various degree courses, butstudents may choose options from a widevariety of subjects, ranging across the historyof philosophy, value theory, metaphysics andepistemology.Exeter normally has two teaching Fellows inPhilosophy, though at the time of printingwe are in process of filling an empty post.At present the Fellow is Dr Antony Eagle, aspecialist in Metaphysics and the Philosophyof Science. Since Philosophy is so widelystudied at Exeter, it is particularly wellrepresented in the library holdings.Here are some books we recommend if youwant to discover what sort of things you willbe studying if you do Philosophy: BertrandRussell, The Problems of Philosophy;Simon Blackburn, Think: A CompellingIntroduction to Philosophy; Earl Conee andTheodore Sider, Riddles of Existence (allOxford paperbacks).CareersBecause the methods you learn in Philosophyare applicable to any subject, those whohave taken a degree involving Philosophyare able to make careers in just about anyarea. Popular careers among recent graduatesinclude the law, management consultancy,journalism, advertising, investment banking,working for NGOs and teaching. Many havealso chosen to continue to do postgraduatework.AdmissionNo special background is needed forphilosophy, and it is not necessary to havestudied any philosophy in school. Studentswith any subject combination at A-level orin IB (or the equivalent), including thoseconcentrating purely on arts subjects orpurely on science subjects, can equally adaptto philosophical ways of thinking. Exeterwelcomes applicants for these degree coursesinvolving philosophy:ClassicsMathematics and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Modern LanguagesPPEPhysics and PhilosophyPhilosophy, Politics andEconomicsTutors: Dr Antony Eagle (Philosophy)Dr Michael Hart (Politics)Prof Martin Ellison (Economics)Lecturer: Ms Ghada Fayad (Economics)The CoursePPE students take all three branches of thesubject in their first year. After that theycan (but need not) drop one of the threesubjects. In the second year students studythe compulsory papers in their subjects, andthen go on to select options. For details onPhilosophy, see the preceding section; fordetails on Politics and Economics, see below.There is a wide variety of optional papers.Students at Exeter are free to constructwhatever combination of options they wishwith just a small number of restrictionsimposed by the University. The titles ofpapers which it is possible to study are listedannually at http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/courses/ppec.shtml.Reeta Chakrabartiis a politicalcorrespondent forthe BBC Television’sBreakfast programmeshown on BBC1and BBC News 24channels. She cameto Exeter College in1984, and took herdegree in Englishand French. Shehas covered twogeneral elections;three changes ofTory leader; andthe Damilola Taylormurder trial.1819