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King's Philosophy

~ official blog of the philosophy department at king's college london..

Annual Peace Lecture by Colleen Murphy

29 Thursday Feb 2024

Posted by ZVT in Events , Public talks

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“ Peace vs Justice Revisited “, by  Colleen Murphy , the Roger and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy & PoliticalScience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Place:  King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R2LS, Safra Lecture Theatre Date and Time:  27 March 2024, 18:00–20:00, followed by reception. Abstract:  The commission of widespread atrocities is a prominent feature of contemporary conflicts and repressive regimes. Consider Ethiopia, Gaza, Ukraine, and the al-Assad regime in Syria. If any wrongdoing merits retributive justice, atrocities that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity do. Yet efforts to end war or ongoing repression characteristically confront the peace versus justice dilemma: the pursuit of trials and punishment for perpetrators of atrocities puts peace or possibilities for regime change at risk. Various solutions to this dilemma have been pursued in both theory and practice. In theory, frameworks for balancing between the two values have been developed and alternative notions of justice that do not demand punishment embraced. In practice, alternative methods of accountability have been adopted: lustration and truth commissions among them. This talk shifts the focus to peace and articulates a conception of what I call complex peace. Conflict and repression flatten the moral universe into stark binaries: perpetrators and victims, oppressors and oppressed, enemies and friends. Peace depends on the possibility of moving beyond such binaries. The lecture will be chaired by  Massimo Renzo , Professor of Politics, Philosophy & Law at King’s College London. All are welcome, but  registration is required . Registration page:  https://www.tickettailor.com/events/kingscollegelondon6/1147881 More details:  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/annual-peace-lecture-2024-peace-vs-justice-revisited?pageIndex=15 PhilEvents page:  https://philevents.org/event/show/120294 The Peace Lectures are due to Alan Lacey, a life-long pacifist who taught philosophy at King’s College London for some fifteen years, and who left a generous bequest to fund a lecture series promoting peace. The series is organised by the King’s Philosophy Department. Read more about the lecture series  here .

Philosophy of Physics Events, 7th and 14th December

29 Wednesday Nov 2023

Posted by alexrfranklin in Uncategorized

See below for two upcoming Philosophy of Physics events hosted at King’s as part of the Bristol-London-Oxford Cambridge (BLOC) network. Please do sign up and come along! 

Lucy James – Cosmic Censorship in Quarantine

Thursday 7th December 2023, 4:30-6:30pm, King’s College London Strand Campus, Strand Building S-1.04

Sign-up link: https://philevents.org/event/show/116597

Abstract: An entailment of strong cosmic censorship is that models of spacetime are to be globally hyperbolic. This talk challenges the motivation for imposing such a constraint in a ‘top-down’ manner. From a functionalist point of view, it is argued, our understanding of the global structure of spacetime at cosmological scales ought to arise from careful generalisations of dynamical laws that apply locally. A link is shown between partial differential equations of the hyperbolic type (the form of many dynamical laws) and hyperbolic manifolds, providing some reason to regard spacetime as being hyperbolic at cosmological scales. However, if the analysis includes approaches to quantum gravity whose laws may not be of the hyperbolic form, such as Euclidean approaches, this link breaks down. Strong cosmic censorship, therefore, is relevant only to a restricted set of regimes.

If you’d like to attend dinner, please email [email protected]

Graduate Philosophy of Physics Workshop

Thursday 14th December 2023, King’s College London Strand Campus, Bush House (SE) 1.06

Sign-up link: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjKGCotVZ8Xuh_iCk_YyyvMGZD4RU4BCG5uN59dBGNSdpInw/viewform?pli=1

Program (all talks will take place in person): 10.30-11.00 – Arrivals and Welcome 11.00-11.50 – Noemi Bolzonetti (University of Italian Switzerland) – Pattern Wave Function Priority Monism 11.50-12.40 – Jonathan Fay (University of Bristol) – On the Relativity of Magnitudes: Delboeuf’s forgotten contribution to the 19th Century problem of space 12.40-14.00 – Lunch 14.00-14.50 – Paolo Faglia (University of Oxford) – Relational Quantum Mechanics: what is an interaction? 14.50-15.40 – Marta Pedroni (University of Geneva) – The singular case of spacetime singularities in quantum gravity 15.40-16.00 – Break 16.00-16.50 – Nicola Bamonti (Scuola Normale Superiore) – What is reference frame in General Relativity? 16.50-17.40 – Anton Sverdlikov (Bergische Universität Wuppertal) – Event Structural Realism After – Drinks and Dinner If you choose to attend online we will send a link a few days before. Looking forward to seeing people there! Any questions please contact [email protected] .

Report: ‘Humanistic Ethics in the UK’

25 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by danelbro in Conference reports , Research

ethics , philosophy of law , political philosophy

Jonathan Gingerich reports — A conference titled ‘Humanistic Ethics in the UK’ was held at King’s on 16 and 17 June 2023. The conference was co-organised by Dr Gingerich together with Dr Adam Etinson (St Andrews) and Dr Daniela Dover (Oxford). The conference brought together moral, legal, and political philosophers from North America, the UK, Europe, and Asia, for discussions of research that builds connections between philosophy and other humanistic disciplines. Speakers included Adam Etinsion (University of St Andrews), ‘On Falling Short’; Robert Simpson (University College London), ‘Free Speech Psychodrama’; Vid Simoniti (University of Liverpool), ‘Artworks as Arguments Without Conclusions’; Vida Yao (University of California, Los Angeles), ‘The Avoidance of Intimacy: A Reorientation in the Moral Philosophy of Love’; Samuel Reis-Dennis (Rice University), ‘Guilt: The Debt and the Stain’; Francey Russell (Barnard College, Columbia University), ‘“A Wedge-Shaped Core of Darkness”’; Kyla Ebels-Duggan (Northwestern University), ‘More than Moore: Murdoch and Korsgaard on Value’; and Olúfẹ́mi O Táíwò (Georgetown University), ‘Security, Freedom, and Arguments from Scale’. The conference provided extensive opportunities for conversation among researchers who had not previously encountered one another’s’ work, and multiple research collaborations are expected to grow out of the conference, including the potential for further collaboration between King’s College London and the Universities of Oxford and St Andrews. Many participants reported that they found the conference extraordinarily intellectually stimulating and philosophically productive.

Harold Moody Doctoral Scholarship at KCL

13 Thursday Jul 2023

The King’s College London Centre for Doctoral Studies are offering one studentship to support underrepresented communities for PhD study in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

If you identify as being of Black or Mixed-Black ethnicity, you are warmly invited to apply for one of these studentships.

The scheme offers full financial support and a skills development programme.

• Duration: 4 years FT or 7 years PT
• Number awards: 1 studentship
• The Award is available for the 2023/24 academic year ( February 2024 or June 2024 entry )

Application deadline: 23 October 2023

The Studentship covers:

• Tuition fees at home level
• An annual stipend (living allowance): at the UKRI rate (£20,622 for 2023/24) (pro-rata for PT registration)
• Research costs: up to £1,000 per annum (pro-rata for PT registration)

Applicants MUST:

• Apply for a PhD in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King’s College London to start either on 1 st February 2024 or 1 st June 2024;
• Be UK-permanent residents who are liable for fees at the home rate;
• Identify as one of the following ethnic groups (as identified by the applicant in the admissions application):
• Black British, Black or Black British African, Black or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British other or Mixed Black.

For more details, including how to apply, see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study-legacy/funding/harold-moody-pgr-studentship-202324-call-2

For more information on the Philosophy PhD programme, see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/areas/philosophy-research-mphil-phd

You can also contact the PhD Admissions Tutor, Alex Franklin, for advice on the Philosophy PhD programme, and applying for the scholarship.

King’s awards first MM McCabe Prize for best dissertation

04 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by danelbro in Announcements , News

ancient philosophy , Classics , metaphysics , perception , prizes , undergraduate students

Quanzhi Liang wins the Mary Margaret McCabe prize for best King’s undergraduate dissertation in ancient philosophy.

The new prize was founded in honour of Mary Margaret (‘MM’) McCabe FBA, Professor of Philosophy Emerita at King’s, and former head of the Philosophy Department, in recognition of her inspirational teaching of ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, to generations of students. Quanzhi Liang has won this year’s prize, for a dissertation entitled ‘Aristotle’s Realism about Perceptual Qualities’, on Tuesday June 13 in the Council Room as part of the Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award Ceremony.

The prize is generously funded by the Foundation for Platonic Studies, a charity devoted to promoting the study of Plato and the Platonic tradition.

My dissertation defends the traditional interpretation of Aristotle as a realist of perceptual qualities. Against the anti-realist interpretation popular in recent decades, I argue that, for Aristotle, colours, sounds, odours, etc., are real features of the world and can exist unqualifiedly without being perceived. (For example, if we see a red apple, the apple is really red, and the apple is red when it is not being seen, just like when it is seen, while according to the contrary interpretations, for Aristotle, the unseen apple is not red or red in the same way as the apple being seen.) Quanzhi Liang on his dissertation

“I am indebted to many people for their help and support in writing the dissertation. Professor Raphael Woolf, my supervisor, was superb at spotting weaknesses of my paper, prompting me to produce new ideas and arguments; at the same time, Raphael was always very kind and gave me a lot of encouragement. I could not have produced the dissertation as it is now without Raphael’s guidance and patience. I am also grateful to Dr Shaul Tor for his insightful comments, which significantly helped me improve the dissertation. Lastly, special thanks to Prof Victor Caston. It was through taking his course on Aristotle during my year abroad at Michigan I developed a genuine interest in Greek philosophy and became especially interested in Aristotle’s philosophy of perception—the topic of my dissertation.

I very much enjoyed my studies at King’s—I am particularly grateful for the various opportunities King’s offered me to enrich my experience (like studying abroad).“ -Quanzhi Liang, winner.

Quanzhi is now looking forward to starting his PhD studies in Philosophy at Princeton University in the autumn.

Job: Lecturer in the History of Philosophy (Modern)

03 Monday Jul 2023

Posted by danelbro in Announcements

early modern philosophy , History of Philosophy , jobs

The Philosophy Department at King’s College London is seeking to appoint a fixed-term (one year) Lecturer with expertise in the history of philosophy, modern period, including Spinoza and Leibniz.  Research specialization, competence and ability to teach at all levels and supervise postgraduate students in that area is required. Teaching competence in epistemology at undergraduate and MA level is also required; research expertise in this area is desirable.

King’s Philosophy Department is one of the largest and most distinguished departments in the UK. We have particular  research strengths in the history of philosophy, philosophy of mind and psychology, philosophy of language and logic, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of science, and moral and political philosophy.

This post will be offered on a full-time, fixed term contract for 12 months from 1st September 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter.

For further details, contact Mark Textor or click here . The closing date for the post is 18 July 2023.

A celebration of the life and work of Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964 – 2023) – 14 June, King’s College London

24 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by danelbro in Events

Maria Rosa Antognazza

Department of Philosophy, King’s College London

A celebration of the life and work of Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964-2023)

Professor of Philosophy, KCL, 2003-23

All are welcome to join us for a celebration of the life and work of Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964 – 2023), Professor of Philosophy, KCL, 2003-23.

Wednesday 14 June 2023, 5:30pm in the Chapel, followed by a reception in the Great Hall.

King’s College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS.

Please register here to attend.

“Consequentialism, Cluelessness, Clumsiness, and Counterfactuals” – Mark Sainsbury Lecture 2023 – Alan Hájek

09 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by danelbro in Uncategorized

King’s College London Mark Sainsbury Lecture 2023

Friday 2 June, 6-8pm

“Consequentialism, Cluelessness, Clumsiness, and Counterfactuals”

By  Alan Hájek , Professor of Philosophy at Australian National University, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Abstract : According to objective consequentialism, a morally right action is one that has the best consequences. (These are not just the immediate consequences of the actions, but the long-term consequences, perhaps until the end of history.) I will argue that on one understanding this makes no sense, and on another understanding, it has a startling metaphysical presupposition concerning counterfactuals. Objective consequentialism has faced various objections, including the problem of “cluelessness”: we have no idea what most of the consequences of our actions will be. I think that on these understandings, objective consequentialism has a far worse problem: its very foundations are highly dubious. Even granting these foundations, a worse problem than cluelessness remains, which I call “clumsiness”. Moreover, I think that these problems quickly generalise to a number of other moral theories. But the point is most easily made for objective consequentialism, so I will focus largely on it.

I will consider three ways that objective consequentialism might be improved:

    1. Appeal instead to short-term consequences of actions;

    2. Understand consequences with objective probabilities;

    3. Understand consequences with subjective/evidential probabilities.

But even here, there be dragons.

Chaired by  David Sosa  (UT Austin).

Venue : KCL Strand, Safra Lecture Theatre

All are welcome. The event is free, but registration is mandatory. Registration ends on 31 May at 11:30 p.m.

Registration:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/annual-mark-sainsbury-lecture-tickets-623672530327

KCL Event’s page:  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/annual-mark-sainsbury-lecture-1

Graduate Conference: Perspectives on Infinity, 12th-13th May

05 Friday May 2023

Graduate students at KCL Philosophy are organising an interdisciplinary conference on Infinity taking place next Friday and Saturday (12th – 13th May). The conference features keynote addresses from Adrian Moore (Oxford) and Øystein Linnebo (Oslo). Here is the description from the organisers, Amedeo Robiolio and Pablo Dopico:

To study infinity is to study things which have no limit, no ends, or no bounds. Consequently, it touches the areas of study of philosophers, scientists and mathematicians in a remarkable number of ways, and often causing interesting difficulties in doing so, some of which, such as Zeno’s paradoxes of Hilbert’s hotel, have achieved great popularity. Infinity is philosophically relevant in Mathematics, with issues such as the different sizes of infinity, the topic of infinitesimals, and the problems of infinity in probabilistic mathematics. But infinity encompasses a much wider range of philosophical issues than those present in the philosophy of mathematics. In metaphysics and the philosophy of physics, the issues both of infinite extension and infinite divisibility of space and of time have troubled thinkers for millennia. In the Philosophy of Religion, the infinity of God is a vast and ancient area of investigation. Indeed, the history of the philosophy of infinity, engaging with the long and complex evolution of this topic is itself an important area of research. The conference aims to bring together researches working on all of these different perspectives on Infinity and more, hoping that this encounter will mutually benefit the advancements of these areas.  

Please click here to go to the conference website for more information on accommodation, registration and locations, and see below for the schedule. A book of abstracts can be found here . You can get in contact with the organisers here .

Conference Schedule

Day 1: Friday 12th May 9:50 Welcome 10:00 – 10:40 Bas Kortenbach (SNS Pisa): Transfinite Level Inference and Global Validity 10:45 – 11:25 Amit Pinsker (Connecticut): Potential Infinity and Decision-Theoretic Paradox 11:30 – 12:10 Julie Lauvsland (Oslo): Mathematical pluralism and the nature of the continuum 12:10 – 14:00 Lunch Break (off-site, not included) 14:00 – 14:40 Guillaume Massas (UC Berkeley): Possibility semantics and Galileo’s paradox 14:45 – 15:25 Osvaldo Ottaviani (Technion): Infinity and Monadology: What Kind of Infinity Does Leibniz Ascribe to Individual Substances? 15:30 – 16:10 Davide Sutto (Oslo): Potentialist Set Theory: New Paths and Open Questions 16:15 – 17:45 Keynote Address, Professor Adrian Moore (Oxford): Wittgenstein and Infinity 18:15 Dinner offered to the speakers ———————————————————————————————— Day 2: Saturday 13th May 10:00 – 11:30 Keynote Address, Professor Øystein Linnebo (Oslo): Potentialism in the Philosophy and Foundations of Mathematics 11:30 – 12:30 Break 12:30 – 13:10 Markel Kortabarria (Barcelona): Grounding the Infinite Descent 13:15 – 13:55 Laura Molinaro (USI Lugano): Failure of Multilocational Endurantism in a Gunky Spacetime 14:00 – 14:40 Chen Yang (Purdue): Hegel on Mathematical Infinity 14:40 Goodbyes

Time for Beauty – 3 short films for philosophers generously sponsored by the BSA

02 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by danelbro in Announcements , Public engagements

Aesthetics , beauty , BSA

Join us for the ‘Time for Beauty’ virtual conference, generously sponsored by the British Society of Aesthetics (BSA). This film-based workshop invites students and researchers to explore the captivating relationship between time and the aesthetic qualities of static visual art.

The conference will be broadcast in three episodes

• Time for Depiction
• Time for Musical Pictures
• Time for Expressiveness

With each running for approximately 30 minutes. It will be accessible online from May to July 2023. To register, simply fill out the form at https://forms.gle/tBAo8R2rRcHjxRMx6 , and you will receive access to the films online. We look forward to seeing you there!

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• Arts & Humanities
• Humanities Cluster
• Email [email protected]
• Website http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/index.aspx

United Kingdom

Student theses

• 1 - 50 out of 108 results
• Title (ascending)

Search results

Worlds, counterparts and modality.

Supervisor: Leech, J. (Supervisor) & Nicolai, C. (Supervisor)

Student thesis : Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy

Why Isn’t There Only Physics?

Supervisor: Knox, E. (Supervisor) & Papineau, D. (Supervisor)

What We Do when We Talk to Each Other: Conversation and Virtue in Plato's Dialogues

Supervisor: Woolf, R. (Supervisor) & Aufderheide, J. (Supervisor)

What makes a painting sad?

Supervisor: Golob, S. (Supervisor)

Varieties of Compatibilism: An Evaluation of Compatibilist Approaches to the Free Will Problem

Supervisor: Sangiovanni, A. (Supervisor), Callanan, J. J. (Supervisor) & Alvarez, M. (Supervisor)

Vagueness, communication, and semantic information

Supervisor: Lappin, S. (Supervisor) & Textor, M. (Supervisor)

Towards a Mapping Account of Applicability: An Exposition, Explanation, and Justification of the Representational Conception of Applied Mathematics

Supervisor: Papineau, D. C. (Supervisor)

Towards a hybrid theory of Property Entitlement, from a combination of Lockean and Humean elements.

Supervisor: Pink, T. L. (Supervisor) & Lappin, S. (Supervisor)

Time's arrows and the smooth initial state

Supervisor: Papineau, D. (Supervisor)

Time in the Treatise: the Epistemology and Metaphysics of a “manner of appearance”

Supervisor: Reid, J. W. (Supervisor) & Callanan, J. J. (Supervisor)

The Will as a Capacity for Knowledge

Supervisor: Soteriou, M. (Supervisor), Stazicker, J. (Supervisor), Pink, T. (Supervisor), Alvarez, M. (Supervisor) & Callanan, J. (Supervisor)

Student thesis : Master's Thesis › Master of Philosophy

The Scope and Development of Kant's Theodicy

Supervisor: Callanan, J. J. (Supervisor) & Antognazza, M. R. (Supervisor)

The Role of Knowledge in Ruling the State in Plato’s Republic and Statesman

Supervisor: Woolf, R. G. (Supervisor) & Tor, S. (Supervisor)

The Politics of Childhood

Supervisor: Fine, S. (Supervisor), Callanan, J. J. (Supervisor) & Fine, S. J. (Supervisor)

The perception of music : an essay on musical understanding, phenomenology and the contents of musical experience

The non-identity puzzle: which solution should we favour.

Supervisor: Littlejohn, C. (Supervisor)

The neuroscience of consciousness and its metaphysics

Supervisor: Soteriou, M. (Supervisor), Papineau, D. (Supervisor) & Parrott, M. (Supervisor)

The Living Word of Reality: A Study on the Aesthetics of V. G Belinsky

Supervisor: Golob, S. (Supervisor) & Callanan, J. (Supervisor)

The Effect of Minimally-Invasive Single-Event Multi-Level Surgery on Gait, Strength and Motor Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy/Spastic Diplegia

Supervisor: Brewer, M. W. (Supervisor) & Shea, N. J. (Supervisor)

The Direction of Fit of Desire

Supervisor: Papineau, D. C. (Supervisor) & Shea, N. J. (Supervisor)

SLURRING EPITHETS AND GENERIC DESCRIPTIVISM: The Meaning and the Epistemology of Ethnically Derogatory Terms

Supervisor: Textor, M. (Supervisor) & Brewer, M. W. (Supervisor)

Simplicity and Substantiality: The Development of ‘Simple Substance’ as a Key Notion in Leibniz’s Philosophy

Supervisor: Reid, J. W. (Supervisor) & Antognazza, M. R. (Supervisor)

Simples, force, and the communication between substances: A study on Leibniz’s Pre-established Harmony and its reception in Wolff’s philosophy

Supervisor: Antognazza, M. R. (Supervisor) & Callanan, J. J. (Supervisor)

Sententialism. Why not?

Sensing and making sense.

Supervisor: Brewer, B. (Supervisor)

Self-Regulation and Reinterpretation in the Nietzschean Self

Supervisor: Silk, M. (Supervisor) & Golob, A. (Supervisor)

Self-Discovery in Plato’s Phaedo

Saddled with content.

Supervisor: Golob, A. (Supervisor) & Brewer, M. W. (Supervisor)

Plato on rational pleasure and two sorts of the good life

Supervisor: Aufderheide, J. (Supervisor) & Tor, S. (Supervisor)

Plato on Physical Reality : The Timaean Metaphysics as an instance of a Platonic Cosmological Power-qualityism

Supervisor: Woolf, R. (Supervisor) & Papineau, D. (Supervisor)

Pindar and the Presocratics

Supervisor: Tor, S. (Supervisor) & Avlamis, P. (Supervisor)

Phenomenology of Fundamental Reality

Supervisor: Papineau, D. (Supervisor) & Soteriou, M. (Supervisor)

Phenomenal concepts and the Private Language Argument

Supervisor: Brewer, M. W. (Supervisor), Lappin, S. (Supervisor) & Shea, N. J. (Supervisor)

Personal Identity as a Hypothesis

Supervisor: Woolf, R. (Supervisor) & Stazicker, J. (Supervisor)

Personal and bodily identity: the metaphysics of resurrection in 17th Century philosophy

Supervisor: Antognazza, M. R. (Supervisor) & Reid, J. (Supervisor)

On the Viability of Presentism

Supervisor: Hughes, C. (Supervisor), Textor, M. (Supervisor) & Adamson, P. S. (Supervisor)

On determinacy and arithmetic: First steps towards an account of the determinacy of arithmetic

Supervisor: Nicolai, C. (Supervisor)

Of human persons and animals : Scholastic animalism and the metaphysics of human nature

Supervisor: Hughes, C. (Supervisor) & Owens, D. (Supervisor)

Nietzsche's Free Self

Supervisor: Callanan, J. J. (Supervisor) & Golob, A. (Supervisor)

Nietzsche on ‘What one should learn from artists’

Neoplatonic love: the metaphysics of eros in plotinus, proclus and the pseudo-dionysius.

Supervisor: Adamson, P. S. (Supervisor) & Lappin, S. (Supervisor)

Necessary Excuses for Epistemic Self-Trust

Supervisor: Textor, M. (Supervisor)

Naturalising intentionality: A teleological approach

Modal rationalism and the metaphysics of mind.

Supervisor: Papineau, D. (Supervisor), Leech, J. (Supervisor), Parrott, M. (Supervisor) & Hughes, C. (Supervisor)

Mental Causation: The Happy Autonomy of Psychology and Physics

Supervisor: Brewer, M. W. (Supervisor) & Soteriou, M. J. (Supervisor)

Memory: its rationality and its role in pragmatics and categorisation

Supervisor: Dutant, J. (Supervisor), Roush, S. (Supervisor) & Papineau, D. (Supervisor)

Meaning, equality and overpopulation: Assessing three worries about ageing enhancement

Supervisor: Galloway, D. W. (Supervisor) & Mameli, M. (Supervisor)

Mathematics and the world: Explanation and representation

Supervisor: Papineau, D. C. (Supervisor) & Knox, E. (Supervisor)

Marxism, liberalism, perfectionism

Supervisor: Fine, S. (Supervisor)

Making sense of metaphysical modal claims

Supervisor: Meyer Viol, W. P. M. (Supervisor)

Between the Acts

Student blog from the faculty of arts & humanities at king's college london, applying for a phd in culture, media & creative industries.

September 23, 2020 Hannah Hungerford Academic blog posts , Postgraduate Study 2

What is a PhD?

A PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is the highest degree we offer and effectively qualifies you for an academic career, as well any kind of career that demands high standards of research, writing, thinking, speaking, teaching, organisation, insight and a broad encompassing perspective on the topic that one decides to specialise in. These notes are meant to help you decide whether and how to apply for Doctoral study with us.

Briefly, completing a PhD involves researching and writing an original research thesis of up to 100,000 words on a topic which makes a new contribution to knowledge either by presenting significant new facts or by interpreting existing information in an important new way.

It’s written in English, must be entirely your own work and be completed to publishable standard. The typical time limit from start to finish is three years of full-time study. You would additionally be expected to make a full contribution to the intellectual life of the department.

A PhD involves, essentially, independent study under the guidance of a supervisor who is an existing expert in your chosen field. It isn’t a “taught” degree, so you do need to be prepared to conduct your own research with guidance, possessing sufficient expertise in both your subject area and the scholarly process to begin work at an advanced level from the outset. To ensure that you create a superior academic product that will help you win a place in the currently overcrowded academic job market (or wherever you choose to deploy your talents after earning your PhD), you want to be ahead of the game.

Initially, Doctoral students are registered as MPhil/PhD students. After between nine and 18 months, they submit a substantial package of written material demonstrating their research progress so far which is read by a panel of academic staff and if all goes well they are formally upgraded to full PhD student status.

At the end of the full three years, you submit your completed, bound thesis to the university which is examined via a viva voce , in which you are questioned intensively on your work by a panel comprising two specialist examiners (but not your supervisor). If this goes well, you have earned your PhD. Congratulations! You can now call yourself “Doctor.”

Before you even think about applying for Doctoral study, you need to be convinced yourself that you possess the motivation and dedication to work independently at advanced level for three years. Put another way, you have to really want to do this in order to survive the whole process–let alone actually to enjoy it!

You should only consider applying for a PhD place if you are genuinely on fire with your subject. On top of that, you also need to be honest with yourself about your own powers of organisation, time management and self-discipline. It is this, as much as intellectual shortcoming, which has led students to disaster in the past. Completing a PhD is a demanding logistical as well as a scholarly endeavour. Ignore this at your peril.

Also, do think about what kind of career or job you are aiming for before applying.  Many employment options exist for CMCI PhD graduates (academia, curators, policymakers, public sector, private sector, cultural management, marketing, etc., etc.).  The more forethought you assign to this topic before beginning a PhD, the better your eventual chances of success. You want to have a long-term end goal in mind before beginning; it will help motivate you and increase the chances of your success.

Tips for your Research Proposal Here are some tips for your research proposal which will be at the heart of your application.

Ideally your research proposal should be a document of no more than four pages in which you explain precisely the field of study that you want to contribute to and the current research gaps that you propose to fill. Tell us clearly what you want to do and how you propose to do it.

When formulating your research proposal, do think about your audience and ensure your topic is an interesting one to people in your field, that it will stand out in a crowded marketplace, and entice people to want to hear more about its contents, which will provide a better probability of your being hired in the job market and being asked to present your work in various venues.

No one expects any PhD student to pen a best seller or anything close to it, but when an academic can present work that commands attention and curiosity, it can only be beneficial. Such PhD dissertations also tend to secure more of the valuable postdoctoral fellowship funding often needed to transform one’s dissertation into a book or monograph, or to get started on one’s next major writing project. The ability to win funding is often viewed as a promising trait for a new PhD holder in the job market.

In addition to the research proposal described, please include a full curriculum vitae (CV) with your application, which will help us to get a far more detailed view of you and your accomplishments than the official form alone permits.

Matching your research interests with ours A vital quality of your research proposal is that the work you want to do lies within the existing research interests of the academic staff here.

Each application to us is considered on its individual merits. It is not simply a matter of our picking “the best” applicants, but also of matching proposed projects with our existing expertise here.

It’s worth reminding yourself of our major research interests as described on the departmental website . Here, you will also find details of recent publications by CMCI academic staff, together with mini-biographies of the people themselves and their particular research interests to get the right fit.

If you find a member of the CMCI staff that seems to share your research interests with your own, and could perhaps serve as the adviser for your proposed PhD dissertation, you can email that person and ask them if you may discuss or email them about the possibility of their becoming your PhD adviser. Please only contact one or two staff members at a time.

• Contact the potential supervisor to establish if they might be interested in taking your enquiry any further.
• the topic/issue they propose to research
• the rationale for doing so (including its importance and originality, as well as any gaps in the literature)
• the proposed methodology (i.e. what, why and how?)
• a prospective chapter outline, and
• a concluding section showing why this research should be conducted at CMCI

Please also send a latest CV with your proposal.

It’s a sad fact, but amidst all this talk of intellectual inquiry, you will also need to figure out how much all of this is going to cost. We strongly advise that you give very serious thought to how you will be able to pay not only the tuition but also the living costs for a full, three-year commitment to advanced study in central London. It would be a disaster all round if you were to run out of funding without completing your degree. It is up to you to research any suitable funding and your eligibility for it. You might also want to investigate national and international funding bodies including from your own country. We regret that we do not offer financial support as a department.

What happens once we receive your application? Once we receive your application your proposed supervisor will give detailed consideration to your proposal. If appropriate, they will contact you to arrange a short interview to discuss your application. On the basis of this, they will assess the value, interest and practicality of your project and whether or not they are interested in becoming your supervisor. If the supervisor wishes to take the application forward, your proposal will then be formally reviewed by the CMCI Postgraduate Research Student Recruitment panel and a decision taken at Departmental level.

This decision-making process can take some time but whatever the outcome, you will finally receive a message giving you the result of our decision.

We hope this guidance has been useful to you and helped to answer some of the questions we are frequently asked by applicants.

For more information on the CMCI PhD check out the King’s webpage .

Learn more about other Arts and Humanities students and their experiences as PhD students at King’s .

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• Joint Programmes

Joint PhD: King's College London

Background of kcl.

Please click here to download the leaflet

KCL was founded in 1829 and is one of the top 20 universities in the world according to 2013/14 QS World University Rankings. It has nine academic schools of Arts & Humanities, Biomedical Sciences, Dental Institute, Institute of Psychiatry, Law, Medicine, Natural & Mathematical Sciences, Nursing & Midwifery and Social Science & Public Policy. Its academic excellence enables world class teaching, research and innovation in the service of society.  The Joint PhD programme was introduced in 2010-11. It offers a valuable opportunity for students to pursue research in a wide range of disciplines as well as in topics that invite interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches at two premier universities in Asia and Europe. 

Programme Features

Students admitted to the joint PhD programmes will:

be registered as full-time students at both universities and be able to enjoy their full range of academic and various facilities;

be guided in their work by faculty members from both universities, and be examined to the standards of both; and

normally split their time of study equally between the two universities and spend the last 6 months of study in the home university.

Programmes Available

Joint PhD Programmes between The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and King's College London (KCL) (information as of September 1, 2019)

​ Collaborating with international partners for education

Interested applicants should first contact the Faculty concerned on available supervisors and subject areas.

Students are required to meet the entry requirements of both universities:

King's College London postgraduate entry requirements  and  English Language proficiency requirements

• The University of Hong Kong research postgraduate entry requirements and English Language proficiency requirements

Applicants can apply through either university, and they are required to submit one application only. The admission decision will, however, be made jointly by both universities.

To apply through  The University of Hong Kong  (i.e. HKU as your home institution)

To apply through  King's College London  (i.e. KCL as your home institution)

Fees, Scholarships and Living Expenses

Joint PhD candidates will pay tuition fees to the admitting university for the whole period of candidature. Applicants applying through The University of Hong Kong can apply for Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS). In addition, a small number of University Postgraduate Fellowship (UPF) are reserved for Joint PhD students with excellent academic performance. Please click here for more information about PGS and UPF.  Students who pursue a joint PhD degree with King’s in Integrative Medicine may apply for the HKU Postgraduate Fellowships in Integrative Medicine . The Fellowships, offered by the LKS Faculty of Medicine, give preference to students enrolled in the HKU-King's College London Joint PhD programme with HKU being the home institution. For enquiries about the Fellowships, please contact the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine directly.  The living cost of students varies depending on different factors like duration of study, accommodation type and life style. Please click  here  for details.

Award of Degree

Upon successful completion of the programme, a student will be conferred a PhD degree jointly awarded by HKU and KCL.

Report a problem

Thank you, your report has been submitted. We will deal with the issue as soon as possible. If you have any other questions, please send an email to [email protected] .

Your Programmes

Mphil/phd ba(hons) ma mphilstud philosophy.

3 in 8 applicants to this programme received an offer.

Data shown above is for entry in academic year 2018/19 (sources) .

Previous Years

Why are there inexact numbers? For data protection reasons, when the number of applications, offers, or admissions is low for a given course (or in some cases, regardless of the numbers), some universities report only approximate numbers. Based on these, we have computed the range of possible values.

Data source

• FOI Request by Matthew Wall. October 2019.

The acceptance rate , or offer rate, represents the fraction of applicants who received an offer. Note that this will be generally lower the acceptances rates (acceptances divided by applicants) published by many other sources. This article explains it in more detail. The acceptances generally indicate the number of offer holders who accepted the offer and fulfilled its conditions. For some universities, however, it denotes the number of applicants who accepted the offer, regardless of whether they subsequently met its conditions.

Data Reliability

Unless otherwise noted, the data presented comes from the universities and is generally reliable. However, some of the differences between years and/or courses may be due to different counting methodologies or data gathering errors. This may especially be the case if there is a sharp difference from year to year. If the data does not look right, click the "Report" button located near the top of the page.

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Philosophy MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury

The Philosophy MPhil/PhD at UCL provides a route for students to produce a thesis of original research under the guidance of their supervisor(s) at a department with a world-leading research reputation.

UK tuition fees (2024/25)

Overseas tuition fees (2024/25), programme starts, applications accepted.

• Entry requirements

The usual prerequisite for the MPhil/PhD is a one-year research degree in Philosophy or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Direct admission to the PhD requires the MPhil Stud (or equivalent). All applicants for research degrees must submit two short pieces of work, of about 2,000 words each, with their application.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website .

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

In REF 2021 our research activity was assessed as among the best in the country: 60% of our activity was assessed as world-leading (4*). The department has a lively and flourishing postgraduate community, and advanced research students are offered opportunities to gain teaching experience. We enjoy collaborative connections with other London universities, as well as the nearby Royal Institute of Philosophy, the Aristotelian Society, and the University of London Institute of Philosophy.

Who this course is for

The PhD in Philosophy is for applicants who have completed a period of postgraduate training that included a large research component and are now seeking to develop an advanced critical analysis in a specific area of Philosophy. Please view the areas we can support in terms of supervision for more details.

What this course will give you

The doctoral programme at UCL provides students with the opportunity to conduct original research in philosophy in one of the UK's top philosophy departments, under the supervision of prominent academics in the field. The PhD programme is designed to prepare students for an academic career, whether it be via the MPhil/PhD or the PhD following on from the MPhil Stud (or equivalent), by ensuring that students receive grounding across a range of topics as well as producing a research thesis.

The foundation of your career

The department has an outstanding job placement record in a highly competitive academic market. The most successful candidates in this market are valued for their range of teaching competence, provided by the taught elements of the MPhil/PhD programme, as well as for their particular area of specialisation, determined by the research topic of their doctoral thesis. During the course of the programme, students receive training in presentation skills, interview practice and teaching methods, and are encouraged to present their research at the department's Work in Progress seminars, and at graduate and academic conferences in the UK and overseas.

Employability

Recent graduates with a PhD in Philosophy from UCL have gained prestigious academic fellowships, as well as postdoctoral placements in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Some example destinations are the University of Oxford, the University of London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Sheffield, the University of Antwerp, the University of Toronto, the University of Dublin and Leipzig University. Others have gone on to lectureships in the UK, for instance at the University of Oxford, the University of York, and LSE, and overseas at the University of Cape Town and the University of Melbourne. Those who have not pursued an academic career have entered a variety of professions, including law, public policy, and publishing.

The department has links with US universities (Berkeley, Columbia and Yale). Academic staff are involved in the running of the Aristotelian Society, the main philosophy society in the UK. Others are involved in running the Institute of Classical Studies lecture series, and the Keeling Colloquia and Lectures in ancient philosophy. Philosophy graduate students host a philosophy conference at the start of every year, and co-organise an annual graduate philosophy conference with graduate students at Berkeley. The Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture series, by the Institute of Philosophy at Senate House, is open to our graduate students.

Teaching and learning

PhD students meet regularly in term time with their supervisors.  As well as their primary and secondary supervisors they can request a term’s supervision with another member of staff.

The department also arranges reading groups and conferences, both internally and in collaboration with other UCL departments and/or other London university philosophy departments, and students receive guidance on setting up their own reading groups.

All doctoral students have numerous opportunities to apply for work as a Post Graduate Teaching Assistants (PGTA) in the department. This experience develops their teaching skills and deepens their philosophical expertise.

The PhD degree is awarded on the basis of a thesis of between 60,000 and 80,000 words. The candidate is also given a viva voce examination.

PhD students should treat their research programme as a full-time job, which equates roughly to 35 hours per week (or 15 hours for part-time students). In term time, students are expected to meet regularly with their assigned term supervisor, usually fortnightly.

Research areas and structure

• Ancient Philosophy
• Epistemology
• History of 20th-Century Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy 
• Nineteenth Century German Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Political Philosophy

Research environment

As a research student, you will join the department's lively and flourishing postgraduate community. The department is located in the centre of the rich philosophical life of Bloomsbury and this means we enjoy collaborative connections with other London universities, as well as nearby philosophical Institutes and Societies, whose activities you will be able to gain access to. Our research students run seminars and reading groups, along with organising events for faculty and external speakers.  The doctoral programme provides you with the opportunity to conduct original research in philosophy in one of UK's top philosophy departments . You may be supervised by prominent academics in your field of research. The PhD programme is designed to prepare you for an academic career, by ensuring that you receive grounding across a range of topics as well as producing a research thesis. During the course of the programme, you will receive training in presentation skills, interview practice and teaching methods, and are encouraged to present your research at the department's Work in Progress seminars, and at graduate and academic conferences in the UK and overseas. Our staff cover a broad range of specialisms including 19th-century German Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Epistemology, Ethics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind and Political Philosophy.

The length of registration for the MPhil/PhD in Philosophy is 3 years full-time. It requires students to take graduate courses assessed by way of several papers in their first year, and, provided they successfully upgrade to the PhD, to produce a thesis of original research under the guidance of their supervisor(s). You will receive supervision each term from either a member of your supervision team or other members of staff in the department who have expertise relevant to your research. The PhD degree is awarded on the basis of the thesis and a viva voce examination.

The length of registration for the MPhil/PhD in Philosophy is 5 years for part-time study at UCL. It requires students to take graduate courses assessed by way of several papers in their first year, and, provided they successfully upgrade to the PhD, to produce a thesis of original research under the guidance of their supervisor(s). You will receive supervision each term from either a member of your supervision team or other members of staff in the department who have expertise relevant to your research. The PhD degree is awarded on the basis of the thesis and a viva voce examination.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble accessable.co.uk . Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team .

Fees and funding

Fees for this course.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees .

Additional costs

The department strives to keep additional costs low. Books and journal articles are usually available via the UCL library (hard copies or via e-journal subscriptions).

The wealth of departmental seminars / colloquiums / symposiums and student-organised Work in Progress sessions give ample opportunities to present research, receive feedback and participate in discussion.

Furthermore, the department’s membership to the University of London’s Institute of Philosophy enables participation in intercollegiate conferences and workshops where the above opportunities can be experienced with a wider audience.

The department has limited funding for which it may be possible to apply to help offset the cost of travel to conferences in the UK or overseas.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs .

Funding your studies

MPhil/PhD and PhD candidates can apply for AHRC funding through the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP), whose members are UCL, King's College London, Queen Mary University of London, the London School of Economics & Political Science, the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, Royal College of Art, and Royal College of Music. Other scholarships and sources of funding may be available. You should take note of funding application deadlines as these can differ from programme application deadlines.

The department has a set of funds from which to offer awards to research students allocated on the basis of academic merit. These include the Keeling Scholarships in ancient philosophy, covering UK/EU fees and maintenance matching AHRC funding. These and other scholarships are listed on our Graduate Research Degrees pages.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website .

Quirk PhD Scholarship

Deadline: 26 January 2024 Value: Fees and maintenance (3yrs) Criteria Based on both academic merit and financial need Eligibility: UK

The MPhil/PhD and PhD start date is September each year. Please attach two samples of your written work (2,000 words each) in addition to your research proposal. For more information see our How to apply page.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2024-2025

Got questions get in touch.

[email protected]

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