Thinking Beyond The Curriculum
Check out this excellent new Philosophy A-level podcast from Simon Kirchin - Philosophy Gets Schooled (and check out his other excellent philosophy podcast, Philosophy Take on the News if you have time too!).
Philosophy Unleashed’s DaN McKee is talking about utilitarianism on this episode.
Read More“I found myself asking the obvious next question: is our own British colonialism taught openly and honestly in British schools?”
Read More“If we all are running around like headless chickens to make things look nice whenever someone visits then that must mean that none of us actually live our lives in the way that we present to others that we do.“
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.“
As always, we are taking May Day off to celebrate International Worker’s Day, remember the Haymarket Affair and the battle for an eight-hour work day, and ask that you spend at least some of this day off work thinking about what needs to be done to improve your workplace, or work in general. More autonomy? More democracy? More meaningful participation in the decisions that determine your day? Less hierarchy? Better communications? More money? Less time for more pay? Two recent books I have loved which investigate our current relationships with work are Sarah Jaffe’s Work Won’t Love You Back and Amelia Horgan’s Lost in Work. Meanwhile, CrimetInc’s Work is a long-time favourite and there is no better book about work than the late, great David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs. And while we’re talking books and May Day, you may as well check out radical publisher, Haymarket Books, on this day as they, too, are named after the Haymarket Affair. We’ll be back (at work) next week as always - Monday May 9th at 6am - with a new proper post. But for now, I shall leave you with this lovely quote from Bertrand Russell’s In praise of Idleness:
“It will be said that, while a little leisure is pleasant, people would not know how to fill their days if they had only four hours of work out of the twenty-four. In so far as this is true in the modern world, it is a condemnation of our civilisation”.
Happy May Day everyone!
Author: DaN McKee
My book - AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY: An Ethical Justification of Anarchism - is available HERE , from the publisher, and from all good booksellers. Read my Anarchist Studies journal paper on Anarchism and Character Education here. For everything else DaN McKee related: www.everythingdanmckee.com
Read More“Consider: it cannot both be true that advertising has no influence on our thinking and that people spend over £23bn a year on advertising. At worst, people are spending their twenty three billion pounds to influence us in a range of ways we are barely aware of. At best, the only advertising that has ever worked is the advertising for advertising itself which has convinced so many people to spend billions on a product which is utterly useless. Which means advertising does still work.“
We’re taking two weeks off to eat chocolate eggs, see family and friends, read some books, take some walks and generally enjoy life outside of work. As always, enjoy our archives while we’re away or submit a post of your own and we’ll be back with you at 6am every Monday during term-time again from Monday April 25th.
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?“
Read More“Must death really silence critique?“
Read More“A student asked me my thoughts on children playing violent video games. My first response was to ask him why he thought it mattered that the players were children. Why not adults playing violent video games too?“
Read More“It’s time that schools became more diverse, and their staff, at least in the short-term, a little less comfortable.“
Read More“This week, understandably, I have been asked a lot of questions about the ongoing situation in Ukraine.“
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.“
We’re taking a week off for half term. Hey, if the UK government can do it when they’re running an entire country then I can do it when I’m just running a humble blog, right? Enjoy our archives - we’ll be back with you at 6am every Monday during term-time again from Monday February 28th.
Read More“I told my form on Friday that this would be my last year at the school. I hadn’t been keeping it a secret, but there also hadn’t really been a relevant opportunity to bring it up.“
Read More“Imagine the police-force where you live offer you the choice of one of two officers to be your local law enforcement from now on:
1) An officer who holds prejudiced thoughts against people like you (taken to mean whatever characteristic you want it to that identifies you specifically - i.e. ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, hair colour, accent - whatever).
2) An officer who holds no prejudice against people like you.
Both officers have taken a pledge not to discriminate against certain groups of people and have received training to support this pledge. There will be sanctions in place if such discrimination happens and Officer #1 is fully aware that their prejudiced thoughts would not be condoned if turned into discriminatory action.
Which officer would you choose?“
Sorry folks. I have covid for the second time. Came down with it on Wednesday. Too groggy-headed to make much philosophical sense (and little else on my mind) and too much work to do setting cover for my classes, etc. with the uncertainty of self-isolation since then. So no new PU this week. Should be back to normal service Feb 7th all being well. 🤞
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.“
Read More“Often we hear people say something that they didn’t think they said at all. They might accuse us of not listening, or being ignorant of certain things, but the fact remains that if you say X and I hear Y, then you did not communicate X to me, you communicated - whether intentionally or not - Y.“
Read More“sometimes living together means compromise and not doing exactly what you want.“