The Oxford Consciousness Society

Carl Jung:
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

About us

The Oxford Consciousness Society brings together students, researchers, and thinkers to explore the nature of consciousness — across science, philosophy, culture, and more.

We provide Oxford’s first dedicated space for rigorous, interdisciplinary, and accessible dialogue on the mind.

Open to all backgrounds — from philosophy and neuroscience to mathematics, arts, and beyond — we believe everyone has something to share and something to learn about consciousness.

Our activities range from debates and lectures to workshops and cross-disciplinary projects, organised around these sectors: mathematics, philosophy & theology, neuroscience, and culture.

Join us, and be part of shaping the future of consciousness studies.Society brings together students, researchers, and thinkers to explore the nature of consciousness — across science, philosophy, culture, and more.

Committee

Meet our wonderful team for 2025-26!

Term Card MT

our events for MIchaelmas 2025

Sectors

A sector of OCS is a group of OCS members, dedicated to a certain purpose, objective, or interest related to consciousness: whether academic, philosophical, or otherwise.

Sectors can be completely disjoint from, overlap with, or be completely subsumed by other sectors. One can imagine

•⁠ ⁠many interdisciplinary sectors arising from such overlaps,
•⁠ ⁠major sectors being completely disjoint from one another, and
•⁠ ⁠more narrow-focused sectors as subsumed within larger sectors, called sub-sectors.

For the academic year 2025-26, there are four sectors:

•⁠ ⁠Mathematics, whose aim is to discuss and develop in Oxford the field of Categorical Consciousness — the application of category theory to consciousness science.
•⁠ ⁠Philosophy + Theology, whose aim is to engage in critical dialogue on the problem of consciousness through different philosophical and theological angles.
•⁠ ⁠Neuroscience, whose aim is to discuss what potential disorders of consciousness and what consciousness means in and for neuroscientists.
•⁠ ⁠Culture, whose aim is to discuss cultural questions regarding consciousness, including how it is perceived in society.