Quassim Cassam

BA PPE 1979
DPhil 1985
Honorary Fellow

Quassim Cassam is a philosopher with a difference. His mission is to make philosophy more relevant, and he applies philosophical thinking to real world problems, such as extremism, terrorism, and conspiracy theories. He also has a side interest in the philosophy of general practice. He provided the content for a Royal College of GPs training module and is also involved in GP training in Manchester.   

He was born to Ismaili Muslim parents in Kenya and spent his early childhood running barefoot around the streets of Mombasa with his many cousins. He emigrated to the UK in his teens and somehow convinced Keble’s PPE tutors to offer him a place despite some less than amazing ‘A’ Level grades. He arrived at Keble in 1979 and ended up staying in Oxford for 25 years. After PPE, he stayed on at Keble as a graduate student. He was awarded his doctorate in 1985 and went on to be a Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Wadham for 18 years.

The most recent of his seven books is a philosophical analysis of extremism, and his current work is on the philosophy of terrorism and radicalization. He is a Professor of Philosophy at Warwick and was recently elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy. An especially proud moment was when he was made an Honorary Fellow of Keble. Quassim has taught Philosophy at several top universities. Between Oxford and Warwick, he was a Professor of Philosophy at UCL and Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge.

He has written for the Guardian and New Statesman and appeared on Newsnight, Sky News, and Al Jazeera. For his sins, he has been a guest a couple of times on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze, only to find himself being interrogated both times by a former student.