Zen blog post in Russian
https://dzen.ru/a/aavu_hTEGC_3Y1A1
Admission to Oxford and Cambridge.
I used to look at those who went to Oxford and Cambridge as super-people who were going to fly into space, this goal seemed so ambitious and unattainable.
And now I've dared to go to Oxford myself.
Fortunately, there are part-time programs that can be combined with work and the competition for which is not so large (about 2 people per place).
Most of the less competitive areas are related to linguistics, history, languages, and education.
Philosophy at Oxbridge, by the way, is a very popular field, where 8 candidates apply for one place, so I decided to consider more affordable alternatives.
So, I came across an unusual interdisciplinary field. -
MSt Literature and Arts (Master of Studies).
The Master's degree focuses on the study of British history and culture through the lens of literature, history, art history, and philosophy.
It focuses on three periods of British history: the early modern period (circa 1500-1700), the "long" eighteenth century (circa 1688-1800), and the "long" nineteenth century (circa 1800-1914).
Studying each period through the lens of several disciplines provides an opportunity to form a multifaceted picture of the past and explore the connections between various aspects of British culture and society.
In general, the interdisciplinary approach is practiced everywhere in the academy.
Academic programs with the names "philosophy and history", "philosophy and politics", "philosophy and literature", "history and French", etc., sound like a dream.
Indeed, one cannot be a good philosopher without knowing history and foreign languages, and one cannot be a good philologist without understanding history and philosophy.
I didn't have enough courses on world history at Moscow State University in philosophy, for some reason we only had lectures on history until the Middle Ages.
This is, of course, a huge omission.
It is incorrect to talk about personalities, concepts, and trends in world philosophy, culture, and religion in isolation from socio-economic and political events and the historical context of the era.
I recommend a selection of Oxford Notes in the blog for those who are interested in England.
I've been thoroughly hooked on books and materials on evolutionary biology and psychology, ethology, and neurophysiology, and I don't know how to stop.
Dawkins, Sapolsky, Lorenz, Chopra, Harari, Pinker, Peterson... I listen to lectures by Dubynin (I went to his special course at the Moscow State University Faculty of Biology) and Drobyshevsky.
To be honest, I haven't read fiction for 5 years (but I don't feel like it either), only popular science: biology, genetics, neurology, all kinds of naturalistic topics…
All this intellectual vinaigrette in my head is also accompanied by reading historical blogs about comparing the crisis of the Roman Republic and the transition to empire and the United States now, the Civil War in the States, as well as books about feminism.
Something like that…
Ekaterina Sveshnikova, England, London, Oxford University
And some more facts about England:
The main mouser or the main meowler?
The pet of all prime ministers is Larry the cat.
What a worthy British gentleman!
This wonderful cat turned 15 years old, and
during his service at 10 Downing Street, since February 2011, there have been 6 prime ministers in the UK (!).
Larry survived the rule of David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.
Larry is probably the only resident of Downing Street whom the British do not hate.
Well, how can you not love this fluffy British gentleman?
