- OCT/NOV HALF TERM 2023 -

We’re taking the week off to observe the important religious festival of Halloween. Lots of ghost stories will be read, horror movies watched, and episodes of The Uncanny TV show and podcast consumed. Also, it happens to be half term, when we usually take a brief break. If you’re missing your weekly Philosophy Unleashed fix between now and our return Monday November 6th, then enjoy our archives, or this recent interview with DaN McKee about philosophy, professional wrestling and anarchism.

167. THERE CAN BE NO JUSTICE THROUGH BLOODSHED - Israel, Gaza, Palestine, and the need for some different thinking.

“Politics should not be a team sport. When it is, we’re doing it wrong. Usually because we’ve been manipulated by those who benefit from the division. It should never be Israel versus Palestine. My team versus yours. It should be ensuring our collectively assured mutual existence, always. Finding new ways to live together. Mutual aid. Walls and borders torn down. Sharing instead of seizing. Acknowledging wrongdoing and finding a way forward.”

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166. WHAT'S IN A NAME? - What The Trivial Can Tell Us About The Significant

“if my utterly inconsequential change of capitalisation could not be easily noted and assimilated into the understanding of work colleagues, friends or family, then I could barely imagine what it would be for a far more important identity marker to be so similarly ignored“

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165. JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS - Why I Wouldn't Want My Killer Jailed

“One student was obviously unconvinced, and remained incredulous that I was advocating a world without punishment. The last question of the night saw them ask: “what would you want to happen then if someone right now, god forbid, ran to the stage and shot you dead? What would you want to happen to them?“

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164. CHALLENGING UNIFORM - The Unwarranted Assumption Behind What Children Wear at School

“We realised that there was a big, and unjustifiable, leap that has been made to get from the starting assumption of needing a uniform to the end conclusion that children need to be dressing up everyday like businesspeople from a bygone age.  That even if you wanted to justify the idea of enforcing a uniform, you needed to go a long way further from that to justify the bizarre uniforms most schools actually make their poor students wear.“

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162. PRACTICAL ETHICS - When Do Economies Become Unethical?

“I am interested in the question of whether the practical compromises economies necessarily demand on our actions are, in fact, immoral, and whether such immorality makes these economies not only unfit for purpose, but unfit to such a capacity that we actually have a moral duty to replace them?“

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- SUMMER BREAK 2023 -

As usual, Philosophy Unleashed will take a break during the school summer holidays because I believe very strongly in having a work/life balance. There’s also 160 past PU posts for you to read between now and September, so it’s not like I’m leaving you without any Philosophy Unleashed until then. However, I do feel slightly bad this year because, having now joined the ranks of the independent schools, my summer is starting about three weeks earlier than usual. Three weeks before summer begins in the state sector. So while I will remain on hiatus until September 11th because, like it or not, I am on holiday now, I do so leaving you with the ethical question of whether it is right that private schools get longer holidays than state schools? Is there any good reason that they do, or any compelling reason why they shouldn’t? Feel free to write me a PU post of your own about it, or send in a post about any philosophically interesting issue, HERE. As always: I’d love more student contributions to this website. It shouldn’t be all me!

If you do want more me though, and miss my writing, remember my new book, Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher is out now everywhere. Check out what my publisher has to say about it HERE.

I’ll see you all in September!

159. TAKING STUDENT SILLINESS SERIOUSLY - Lightning McQueen and the Importance of Battling Deepities

“Like garbage washing up on the shore of a polluted sea, the Philosophy classroom is often where a lot of these deepities come to rest as students, impressed by their apparent wisdom, share them with the one person they think will be equally impressed: their Philosophy teacher. Often those students are soon disappointed, even angry, when that teacher is not impressed at all and, instead, pops the bubble of the illusion and exposes its emptiness.“

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158. SOCRATES WEPT - On Resisting The Unexamined Life

“I had some interesting conversations with students this week about first principles. How, once you unpack the thing you are talking about you might realise that you no longer believe what you thought you did, or might even be having a different conversation entirely…“

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157. I WON'T MISS SIR - On Naming Our Teachers

“Any time we approach an area of education with an attitude of it being too difficult or even impossible for someone to do something, we make it so through a process of self-fulfilling-prophecy.“

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156. USE YOUR ILLUSION - Magicians and Reality

“I used to think it was the clowns who were the real heroes - speaking truth to power about the absurdity of power and mocking those in authority with satire and parody. But nowadays I think it might be the magicians.“

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ANARCHIST ATHEIST PUNK ROCK TEACHER

Is the memoir of DaN McKee's twelve years as a conflicted Philosophy and Religious Studies teacher out June 16th on Earth Island Books!

It not only contains some highlights from the last four years of Philosophy Unleashed, but shows how anarchist philosophy, atheism and a background in DIY punk rock has influenced and shaped DaN's approach to the classroom, as well as his approach to life.

As the blurb says: "'Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher' is more than just a memoir of some teacher you've never met. It is philosophy of education, of anarchism, of authenticity, and of life. Throw in some personal history, the deaths of both of his parents to deal with on top of juggling all the professional absurdities that come with the job (not to mention having to teach through a global pandemic), and you have all the earmarks of a biographical classic."

If you want to pre-order it directly from the publisher, do so here.  If you want to pre-order it from Amazon, do so here.  It's available in both paperback and as an eBook.

155. THE IMPERMANENCE OF VALUE - Fluctuating Perspectives on Worth

“Philosophers might ask: if value changes all the time, is there really such a thing as value at all? If we can’t pin it down - define it - then is it really anything? Is there anything eternally valuable and undeniably valuable to all?  But even in philosophy value fluctuates based on who is doing the valuing. To some thinkers that question is important. Personally, I see no value at all in finding an answer to that question and would rather set my mind to other things.“

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- MAY DAY BANK HOLIDAY 2023 -

As is tradition, there will be no new Philosophy Unleashed post today as this Monday is May Day, an International Worker’s Day in memory of the Haymarket Affair and the battle for an eight-hour work day (as well as the third anniversary of the e-book publication of my book, Authentic Democracy: An Ethical Justification of Anarchism, also available in paperback here). Currently the UK is experiencing the largest level of mass industrial action across a range of public sectors because, all these years later, we still do not have an appropriate settlement between employers and their workers. While we will be posting next Monday, during the coronation bank holiday, this one is an important philosophical opportunity to reflect on ethical employment and workers’ rights while also taking a day off in solidarity with all those striking right now in the fight for a better world. Happy May Day from Philosophy Unleashed.