119. DECOLONISING DECOLONISATION - Why Diversifying Reading Lists Isn’t Enough
Read More“I found myself asking the obvious next question: is our own British colonialism taught openly and honestly in British schools?”
117. ROE VS WADE VS PHILOSOPHY - Abortion and the Illusion of Law
Read More“one of the founding principles of Philosophy Unleashed is that it is a place to go “beyond the curriculum” and discuss things not covered by GCSE and A-level courses in Philosophy. Abortion ethics, as every student knows, is central to any current examination specification in either Religious Studies or Philosophy, and most undergraduate courses in Ethics will also cover it. So I will be careful here not to simply rehash the standard arguments most people will have already covered.“
115. IS THIS A POST ABOUT WILL SMITH SLAPPING CHRIS ROCK? - Independent Media, Established Media and Power
Read More“A few weeks ago someone suggested on Twitter that I write my next post about the relationship between the established media and power. “Is independent journalism a counter to the established media or just a rival for its central position?“
112. KILLING THE AUTHENTIC SELF - Why Is It So Hard To Be Yourself At Work?
Read More“It’s time that schools became more diverse, and their staff, at least in the short-term, a little less comfortable.“
111. THE FOG OF WAR - Student Questions Arising From The Situation In Ukraine
Read More“This week, understandably, I have been asked a lot of questions about the ongoing situation in Ukraine.“
110. THERE IS NO JUST WAR - There Is Just...War
Read More“It is the concept of nations that lies at the root of the problem of war. It is the global economic systems of manipulated scarcity, inequality and hoarding that motivates taking by violence what can’t be gained legitimately. When we ignore the underlying motivations of invasion and speak only of the good and the bad, we sweep under the rug the tricky truth that we are all culpable for maintaining a global political system that nurtures the conditions for war far more than it inculcates the conditions for peace.“
107. MUST BORIS GO? - On Empty Symbolism
Read More“Boris being forced to resign might make me feel momentarily happy, but fundamentally it does nothing to address the actual wrongdoing or make things better. It is symbolic, but the symbolism is largely empty.“
104. DOWN ON DOWNING STREET - Refocusing The Ethical Inquiry Away From Christmas Parties
Read More“Because if this government falls - and it should - it should be for their far more egregious moral wrongs than this purely selfish complaint: how come they got to have a party last year when we couldn’t have one ourselves?“
102. NICK FLETCHER IS A ROLE MODEL OF STUPIDITY - Using Philosophy To Show Exactly Why This MP Is An Idiot
Read More“Fletcher was certainly sexist. But his sexism extends to the logic of his argument too. It’s easy to show how…“
101. TEACH MORE PHILOSOPHY IN SCHOOLS - Why Philosophy Deserves Distinct Curriculum Space
Read More“Not all study of Philosophy ends in revolution. But it could. Certainly the careful and methodological scrutiny of our ideas and concepts - shining a probing light on the underlying arguments which uphold them - and learning how to question the fundamentals of logic make it harder for the manipulations of rhetoric and emotive reasoning to deceive us and might therefore lead to outrage if such deceptions are exposed in the Philosophy classroom. But this ought to be welcomed if one of the end goals of our education system is a student’s ability to be an informed citizen of a cooperative democracy. One might therefore see Philosophy’s diminished, corrupted, place on the school curriculum as evidence that producing such capable citizenry is not, therefore, one of the actual aims of this current education system.“
100. UNVACCINATED NEED NOT APPLY - Ethics, Healthcare Jobs and Mandatory Vaccination
Read More“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.“
98. INTERPRETING THE RESULTS - What Do Votes Ever Really Tell Us?
Read More“the arguments for democracy are independent from the mechanics of voting and, too frequently, true, authentic, democracy is impeded by those unfit mechanics, not aided by it“
96. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE INDIVIDUAL: On The Incoherency of Individualism
Read More“A student asked if we could imagine a world where Boris Johnson announced a shortage of petrol (or toilet roll, or dried pasta - name whatever limited resource you like) and, instead of immediately triggering panic buying, the announcement is greeted by a wave of collective reason. I will only buy the limited good if I really need it now, understanding that others may need this now limited resource more than I do. Perhaps usually I fill up my car whenever it hits the final quarter of a tank? Now I know there is not enough fuel to go around maybe I’ll wait until I’m closer to empty? That sort of thing…“
95. TRANS ATHLETES ARE ATHLETES: Exposing Transphobia In Our Discussions About Sport
Read More“The first thing I did was point out that this was quite a strange question to ask, and that we had to be careful that it wasn't coming from a place of prejudice or discrimination…“
94. TWENTY YEARS LATER: What Is The Purpose of Remembering 9/11?
Read More“It is not said enough that on September 11th, 2001, a significant number of people around the world witnessed on live television the death of nearly three thousand people. Seeing one person die would be considered a trauma. Something requiring years of therapy. Something from which we might never recover. Who knows how many of the terrible events of the last twenty years are the result of a traumatised humanity who never got the professional help they needed to come to terms with what they saw when those towers fell?“
92. WORKING ON HOLIDAY: Am I Really About To Defend Dominic Raab?
Read More“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
Read More“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
Read More“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.“
88. ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS - Correspondence on Justice
Read More“Many months ago, a student suggested several topics I might like to cover on future Philosophy Unleasheds. While I did one straight away, the remaining questions were soon lost to time as life got in the way and I forgot about the email entirely…“
86. I'VE TOLD YOU BEFORE - On the Potential Deception of Knowledge Transfer
Read More“If the relationship of knower to supposed transferee is asymmetrical and hierarchical, abuses can happen.“