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Join the Department of Philosophy and become part of a flourishing and welcoming community, work alongside internationally renowned academics and contribute to highly respected research.
Our PhD programme combines intensive research training with rigorous, one-one supervision in a relaxed and friendly environment. We encourage collaboration and constructive dialogue, where staff and students learn from each other.
Staff in the Department have a wide range of research interests and expertise. Areas in which we offer PhD supervision include:
Our expertise spans metaethics, normative ethics, value theory and applied ethics.
Research includes Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, Mach, Hertz and nineteenth-century philosophy of science.
We investigate many aspects of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy, both early and late.
Our expertise covers contemporary analytic metaphysics, Aristotelian metaphysics, the metaphysics of Aquinas, and the relationship between metaphysics and science, as well as metaphysics and philosophy of religion.
We address many aspects of philosophy of language, including the relationship between language and mind, theories of meaning, Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, contextualism, and experimental philosophy of language.
Patrick
PhD in Philosophy graduate
The Department of Philosophy is part of the University's Heritage and Creativity research theme. Our interdisciplinary approach means we regularly work with many research centres, including:
Reading Ethics and Political Philosophy (REAPP)
Bringing together the University's moral and political philosophers, REAPP acts as a hub for individual scholars to exchange ideas, develop projects and organise events and workshops.
The CCR aims to promote excellence in research concerning the understanding of human intelligence. Bringing together researchers from different disciplines, it enables cross-discipline discussion and hosts events to promote new and existing research collaborations.
This major research project, funded by the Templeton Foundation, with Professor David Oderberg as Principal Investigator, brings together a team of scientists and philosophers at Reading to investigate philosophy of biology.
The team is researching the nature of goal-directedness in organisms and living systems, through the lens of the making of mistakes, where living things ‘get it wrong’. The team is applying these ideas to experimentation on blood clotting.
When you undertake a PhD with us, you'll be assigned two supervisors with expertise that aligns with your research topic.
Our academics are leaders in their areas of research and will work closely with you to ensure your time with us as a PhD student is as rewarding as possible.
Find out more about our staff and the areas of doctoral research they supervise
We offer several routes to a doctoral qualification, so you can find the one that suits you and the topic you wish to study.
Part-time PhDs are available as well as full-time, so you can choose a mode of study that suits your circumstances.
Our PhD by Distance programme allows you to benefit from the expertise of a Reading-based supervisor, while conducting your research in a different location.