Hi again!
Yes, I do have to apologise again for not having written anything during this term. I really underestimated the amount of work I would have - and in the interest of getting at least some sleep I had to prioritise course work over everything else.
On Saturday night I came back to Prague from my second full term in Oxford. In many ways Hilary term was much better than the first term: going to Oxford in January, I already knew more or less what to expect not only in terms of work, but also in terms of knowing the people in college and on my course, and knowing my way around (although yes, it does still happen that I get lost in some tiny street, it just happens much less often :-) ).
When it comes to work, I feel like I enjoyed it much more this term than in Michaelmas - this is despite the fact that quantitatively we actually had more work. The fact that I had very little sleep throughout the term, however, did not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying it! In economics, we moved on from microeconomics (which we studied the entire first term) to macroeconomics, which I tend to enjoy more, since it’s feels less theoretical and more “observable” in the real world. In philosophy, we studied General philosophy, and I felt like we finally began dealing with “properly” philosophical subjects - the issues of knowledge (How do we know what we know? Do we actually know anything? Can we be sure of things?), induction (If we had seen the sun come out every single day in the past, are we justified in believing that the sun will come out the next day too?), perception (When we perceive a table in front of us, can we be sure there is actually a table, and we are not being merely deceived?) and alike were discussed and I enjoyed this thoroughly, although writing essays on such topics, that feel very abstract, was really challenging. I also enjoyed the new module in politics - political theory, where we discussed basic political concepts such as liberty and democracy, and the most influential writers on these topics, mainly Mill and Rousseau. All of my subjects had thus moved to study areas that I am more interested in, and therefore, although I enjoyed the first term too, Hilary was much more enjoyable and fun for me.
Given the very large amount of work that I had, however, I did not get a proper chance again to take part in many events across the university or in my college - even so, though, the 8 weeks of our term seemed to have gone by so quickly!
The highlight of my activities out of work were probably the debates in the Oxford Union. I believe I had not mentioned the Union here before, so let me just briefly introduce what this is. The Oxford Union is (or so they say) the most prestigious debating society in the world, inviting many famous and influential speakers not only from the UK, but from all over the world. Famously, Harold Macmillan (a British Prime Minister in the 1960s, who studied in Oxford) once said that the Union is “the last bastion of free speech in the Western world”, and I must say that this is indeed what one sees when observing the debates. Students giving their opinions and debating issues very thoroughly - that is what really happens in the Union, at a level unparalleled at any other institution. Although I do not myself directly participate in debates, I keenly go there as often as I can to listen to what not only the famous speakers have to say, but also to the students who often have very interesting insights. For example, the debates I attended this term included debates on civil disobedience, on religion in politics and other very interesting topics relevant to the current world. It is no wonder that so many British politicians had taken part in the Union debates back when they studied in Oxford.
This is, indeed very briefly, what I was doing in Oxford during Hilary Term 2012.
I will be back with more, hopefully interesting, posts soon!
