Oliver Pooley: Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

I normally teach philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, logic, philosophical logic, metaphysics and epistemology.

Some resources for my tutorial students can be found on Canvas.

Oriel welcomes applications for seven of the eight undergraduate degrees involving philosophy at Oxford, including:

In particular, Oriel has a strong declared interest in physics and philosophy and we have admitted at least one physics and philosophy student every year since I joined the college. Here are some physics and philosophy background reading suggestions.

Graduate Supervision

I welcome contact from potential graduate students whose planned PhD topic overlaps with my areas of interest.

The best place to start when looking for information on graduate study in philosophy at Oxford is the Philosophy Faculty's website. There are three routes for those with interests in philosophy physics: the nine-month MSt in Philosophy of Physics; the Philosophy of Physics track of the BPhil in Philosophy; and applying directly for the DPhil. Which options are possible, and which is best, will depend on your background.

Please note: there is a rigid process and timetable for all applications to do graduate work in philosophy at Oxford. Further details are on the Faculty's admissions page.

Current and former D.Phil. students

  1. Daniel Grimmer2nd supervisor; co-supervised with James Read
    Working on the metaphysics of space and time.
  2. Patrick DürrCo-supervised with James Read
    Gravitational Energy in General Relativity and Other Theories of Gravity (2020).
  3. James ReadCo-supervised with Harvey Brown
    On certain a priori claims in the foundations of spacetime theories (2018).
  4. Niels MartensCo-supervised with David Wallace and Adam Caulton
    Against comparativism about mass in Newtonian Gravity – a case study in the metaphysics of scale (2016).
  5. Neil Dewar2nd supervisor; co-supervised with David Wallace
    Symmetries in physics, metaphysics, and logic (2016).
  6. Thomas Moller-NielsenCo-supervised with Simon Saunders and Jeff Russell
    Symmetry, indiscernibility, and the generalist picture (2015).
  7. Syman StevensCo-supervised with Chris Timpson
    The dynamical approach to relativity as a form of regularity relationalism (2014).
  8. Natalja Deng
    Time, Experience, and the A- versus B-debate (2010).
  9. Dennis LehmkuhlCo-supervised with Harvey Brown and Jeremy Butterfield
    Spacetime Matters: On Super-Substantivalism, General Relativity, and Unified Field Theories (2009).
  10. Ian Gibson2nd supervisor; co-supervised with Adrian Moore
    Time, Objects and Identity (2007).