Digest Week 3 Trinity Term 2026

TT26, Week 3 (10 May - 16 May)

If you have entries for the weekly Digest, please send information to admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk by midday, Tuesday the week before the event. 

Notices - other Philosophy events, including those taking place elsewhere in the university and beyond

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Avicenna Reading Group

Convenor: Ibrahim Safri

Date: Tuesday, 12 May, 2–3:30pm

Venue: Magdalen College, McFarlane Library

The theory of time remains one of the most complex and significant subjects of inquiry, central to both philosophical and physical discourse globally. Throughout the history of world philosophy, this concept has been continually refined, spanning Late Antiquity and Neoplatonism through to Islamic, Medieval, and Early Modern traditions. Within the global corpus of Arabic philosophy, diverse interpretations of time have emerged, shaped by three primary perspectives that influenced Islamic medieval conceptions of this theory. This reading class will focus on Avicenna’s The Physics of The Healing, in which he presents various notions of time before establishing his own account.

Our objective is to engage in a profound reading of Avicenna’s thesis to determine the extent to which his theory of time represents a departure from Aristotelian thought, a continuation of the Peripatetic tradition, or an innovative synthesis. We will discuss how his contributions facilitated the development of this concept within the context of global philosophy.

Text: Avicenna, The Physics of The Healing; a Parallel English-Arabic Text. Translated by: Jon McGinnis. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2009. Chapter 10: Beginning the discussion about time

 

Wittgenstein Reading Group

Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Colour

Date: Tuesday, 12 May, 5–7pm

Venue: Canada Room, St Hilda’s

Please contact Richard Gipps (richard.gipps@bfriars.ox.ac.uk) to enquire about attending the meeting and to be informed of the relevant passages to read

Public Talk

Understanding Music

Speaker: Christopher Peacocke, Columbia University

Date: 13 May 2026, 6 – 7pm 

Venue: Cohen Quadrangle, Fitzhugh Auditorium, Exeter College

Music expresses emotions in a special way. My topic is this special way. Its character generates extraordinary powers for music as an artform. It also brings limits. This talk, illustrated with musical examples, is intended for a general audience, for anyone interested in how music works. It also aims to contain new points that will be of interest to specialists.

For further information see here