100. UNVACCINATED NEED NOT APPLY - Ethics, Healthcare Jobs and Mandatory Vaccination

November 15, 2021 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Ethics, Free, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Work

“The anarchist in me naturally balks at any enforcement of mandatory rules from on high. But the ethicist in me can see the moral reasons why those people either looking after the most at risk of dying from Covid-19, or most likely to come into intimate contact with large numbers of members of the public, specifically for health-related reasons, should want to do what they can to protect both themselves and others.“

92. WORKING ON HOLIDAY: Am I Really About To Defend Dominic Raab?

September 06, 2021 by DaN McKee in Culture, Economics, Ethics, Free, Mental Health, Obligation, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Politics, War, Work

“the issue I would like to consider as we return for the 2021/22 academic year is, surprisingly, given my usual vocal opposition to all things Tory, whether Dominic Raab actually did anything wrong by staying on holiday while Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. Or, more broadly, whether holiday should mean holiday - a total cessation of work - even when your work brings with it important responsibilities.“

90. FREEDOM DAY - An Anarchist Account

July 12, 2021 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, COVID19, Economics, Ethics, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Given that we do not yet live in an anarchy, and on July 19th we will still be living in the same exploitative capitalist system which limits so many of our options and choices, the end of these particular laws does not mean we are being given radical new freedom by our government. The only thing being given the green light here is capitalism, to resume its exploitation as usual at the continued expense of our wellbeing.“

89. THE EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE OF COVID 19 - Checking For Symptoms In The Dark

July 05, 2021 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Data, Education, Epistemology, Ethics, Justice, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Miranda Fricker wrote of what she called “epistemic injustice” - “a wrong done to someone specifically in their capacity as a knower”. She identified two forms of such injustice: “testimonial injustice”, the injustice of denying credibility to someone’s word, and “hermeneutical injustice”, the injustice of disadvantaging someone in their access to interpretive resources and forming an obstacle to their capacity to know. This week a member of Sage, the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, urged the UK to expand its official list of Covid symptoms so that UK citizens could better identify if they have the virus. In this article I intend to show that by ignoring this advice, and keeping the official list of symptoms restricted to a high fever, a new continuous cough, or a loss of sense of smell or taste, the UK government is permitting a continuing epistemic injustice to occur which is causing unnecessary and highly preventable suffering.“

87. WHEN TO LOOK AWAY - Reflecting on Christian Eriksen's Collapse

June 21, 2021 by DaN McKee in Censorship, Culture, Death, Ethics, Mental Health, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Sport

“In the days since, many have criticised the broadcasters for continuing to show traumatic footage. The collapsed player, the crying teammates, the shocked fans, the devastated wife, even the philosophical pundits shaken by what they had seen. Couldn't, in fact shouldn't, the stream have been cut and the tragedy kept as far out of the public eye as it could be?“

84. NO TRUE ARGUMENT - How A Basic Fallacy Stops Criticism And Prevents Peace

May 24, 2021 by DaN McKee in Identity, Ethics, Meaning, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Racism, War, Logic

“That this well documented fallacy remains so effective and so frequently used is one of the frustrating reminders that knowledge of philosophy, and of the mechanics of arguments, is not necessarily a path to happiness or contentedness. Often, it simply means being fully aware that an argument is faulty, but seeing it work to convince people regardless.“

79. OFFENSIVE IMAGES - An Ethic of Kindness

March 29, 2021 by DaN McKee in Censorship, Culture, Education, Ethics, Free Speech, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Religion, School

“In my classroom, I don’t feel my free-speech is threatened, or my right as a non-Muslim to draw or see images of a Prophet I don’t believe in impeded, if I refrain from showing images to my students which I know violates their beliefs. It is an act of kindness to them, not an act of repression to me.“

77. TIME TO EVOLVE ON GENDER - Why We Can't Ethically Support An Exclusionary Binary

March 15, 2021 by DaN McKee in Education, Ethics, Gender, Identity, LGBTQ, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed

“If you suggested that women should be barred from having the same rights as men because of their reproductive organs you would be laughed at or face a lawsuit for discrimination. We have overcome these old ways of thinking with technological, intellectual and emotional advances which have rendered the old narratives obsolete. Yet for some reason the myth of gender norms seems harder for people to shake despite the obvious failings of the binary male/female model.“

72. THE 2021 EXAMS ARE NOT CANCELLED - But They Should Be

February 01, 2021 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Data, Education, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School

“I don’t believe in examinations, but I do believe in moral tests, and I worry that when we do eventually hear back from the consultation about the alternative to 2021 GCSEs and A-levels we will have failed yet another one.“

71. RETHINKING HOW WE LISTEN TO MUSIC - Towards A Meaningful Ethics of Streaming

January 25, 2021 by DaN McKee in Charity, COVID19, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Music

“…what is actually missing from the current business model of the music industry is not more pennies per stream, but a meaningful ethics instead of mere talk of ethics with very little substance. So here is my first attempt at drafting some…“

70. TRUMP, UNFORTUNATELY, HAS NOT BEEN SILENCED - Thoughts on Freedom of Speech in the Digital Age

January 18, 2021 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, Censorship, Culture, Education, Elections, Ethics, Free Speech, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Good ideas grow, bad ideas shrink. As a consequence, good speech gets louder and bad speech soon gets drowned out. Not censorship, but developed understanding and evolution towards better ideas that, at a certain point, recognise certain voices as no longer worthy of being listened to. The fascists, the racists, the sexists, the homophobes, the conspiracy theorists - they have little to offer once we look beyond mere transgression and take the ideas seriously as speech. And so, rightly, they are discarded.“

69. WHAT, IF ANYTHING, HAVE I LEARNT FROM HAVING COVID 19? - Reflections on Getting the Plague

January 11, 2021 by DaN McKee in Christmas, COVID19, Culture, Death, Education, Epistemology, Ethics, Free, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“now it is three weeks since the day I got my positive COVID test, and I cautiously think I may have survived it, I have decided to look back at the experience to see what, if any, philosophical lessons it taught me.“

65. IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE COVID-CHRISTMAS - Re-Thinking The 2020 Festive Season

November 23, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Death, Ethics, New Year, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Christmas

“The Grinch who steals Christmas this year isn’t COVID 19, it’s the mindset that is so rigid about what Christmas has to be it can’t conceive of doing things differently.“

61. WEAR A MASK - Why Exercising Personal Freedom Should Not Come at the Expense of Others

October 19, 2020 by DaN McKee in Charity, COVID19, Culture, Death, Ethics, Free, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Unfortunately there is a school of though around masks that equates personal liberty with the freedom not to wear one, regardless of the potential consequences. A selfish conception of what it means to be free that ignores our social connections with, and the needs of, others for personal desire and gain.”

55. THE WORLD (NOT JUST AMERICA) NEEDS BIDEN TO WIN THE 2020 ELECTION: A Student in the UK Weighs in on the Ethics of American Voting

September 07, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Economics, Ethics, History, Militarisation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Student Writing, Elections

“since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the US has gone from perceived leader of the free world and centre of cooperation to a nation which continues to pull out of global organisations which ensure global security, health and sustainability, hence damaging the capability of all nations to respond to aggressive nations, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic“

52. WRESTLING WITH THE GUILT OF WRESTLING: Can You Be An Ethical Person and Support an Unethical Business?

June 29, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Pop Culture, Work

“As a philosopher, especially a philosopher interested in ethics, it was the latest in a list that feels far too long of moral wrongs surrounding the industry that it feels increasingly impossible to turn a blind eye towards. I have been a fan since April of 1992, but this may have been the month wrestling and I finally have to part ways.”

50. THE PROBLEM WITH CIS-NORMATIVITY TO A NON-PASSING TRANS WOMAN - A Student Asks Us To Confront The Consequences Of Cis-Normative Thinking

June 15, 2020 by DaN McKee in Culture, Education, Ethics, Free, Identity, Mental Health, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Student Writing, Suicide, Gender

“Cis-normative thinking therefore has disastrous consequences when it perpetuates the idea of passing being a requirement for those who aren’t cisgender“

49. AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY & COVID 19: a Postscript on a Pandemic

June 14, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Book, COVID19, Economics, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Authentic Democracy

“Unfortunately for the world, though helpful to my book, far from illustrating the necessity of government, Covid-19 has served only to support the thesis defended within the pages of Authentic Democracy, proving even further how our current, flawed, political arrangements continue to fail us.“

48. WHY THIS UPRISING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAS A MATTER OF WHEN, NOT IF - A Student Questions The Limits of Peaceful Protest

June 08, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Death, Education, Ethics, Free Speech, Identity, Militarisation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Student Writing, Racism, Black Lives Matter

“The reason we are seeing such outrage, and even riots, in the U.S.A today is due to the level of systematic oppression that black people have faced across the world for much of the last millennium”

47. A LIFE WITHOUT SANCTIONS - Thinking About Consequences And Their Lack In An Age Without Punishment

June 01, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, COVID19, Culture, Death, Education, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School

“Sanctions, punishments, threats…these may bring some short term sense of comfort that justice is being done, but true justice comes when we no longer need such threats to ensure good behaviour. When the logic of the genuine consequences of an action is enough to make people make better choices. When police aren’t racists and politicians aren’t liars because the obvious wrongness of being a racist or a liar, and its logical consequence in the death and suffering of innocent people, is sufficient to not want to be racist or lie. “