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Dr Sophie Allen

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Dr Sophie Allen

  • Stipendiary Lecturer in Philosophy

I am primarily interested in what there is in the universe and how it works, and also what science—especially physics—tells us. When I am not exploring the ultimate nature of reality and our ways of investigating it, I am interested in methodological issues about how best to answer metaphysical questions, the relationship between philosophy and science, and the explanation of consciousness.

Among other topics, I have published papers about consciousness and space, whether the way we classify the world is the way it is, and the comparison and evaluation of metaphysical theories. I am the author of A Critical Introduction to Properties (Bloomsbury, 2016).

As well as being a Lecturer at St Peter’s, I am a Supernumerary Fellow in Philosophy at Harris Manchester College, and a member of the Philosophy Faculty. I have an MA (Honours) from the University of Glasgow, and a Doctorate from the University of London.

Teaching

In St Peter’s I teach first year Logic, Frege’s The Foundations of Arithmetic, and occasionally General Philosophy. For Finals I teach a variety of papers, including Knowledge and Reality, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Logic and Language, Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Mathematics. For the Philosophy Faculty, I have lectured on Leibniz, Introduction to Logic, General Philosophy, and Frege’s The Foundations of Arithmetic.

I am active in broadening participation in Philosophy, and in encouraging admissions to Oxford; as well as doing outreach work. I have also appeared on The One Show to discuss why it is good to give money to charity.

For a more technical description of my research interests, see my Philosophy Faculty page.