About PHILOSOPHY UNLEASHED

WHAT IS IT?

Philosophy Unleashed is a free Philosophy blog which posts new content regularly during school term-time. It has been running since 2019. Posts are usually weekly, at 6am every Monday during term time (though in March 2024 I decided after 180 posts to make things a bit less frequent at times in order to prevent burnout.)

Each post tries to apply methods of Philosophy to something of interest in the real world in an attempt to find better clarity, or explore confusions.

Although most posts are currently written by the blog’s founder, philosopher, writer, and teacher, DaN McKee, the blog is open for submissions from anyone who wants to write a post. The only rule since the start is that the topic of a post cannot be something being studied in class, as part of an exam specification. It has to be something which takes you beyond what is already going on in the classroom.

WHY IS IT?

This is because the blog stemmed from the “Philosophy Unleashed” lessons DaN often conducts as a teacher. Bored of the limitations of the small slice of Philosophy that had to be taught as part of the GCSE and A-level curriculums he was involved with, DaN - inspired by his own A-level Philosophy teacher who used to do the same - would occasionally drop the planned curriculum for a lesson and “unleash” the broader philosophical potential of his students. Using anarchist pedagogy (the classroom as a mutual and democratic venture of shared discovery, without top-down authority) and his background in improvised theatre (audience suggestions as the springboard for deeper explorations of a theme and being able to spontaneously react “in the moment”), Philosophy Unleashed lessons enable students to set the agenda of discussion themselves with the only rule being that it has to be something the class is not currently studying. The objective is then to see if the issue holds any value as an object of philosophic inquiry.

Even here, however, “philosophic inquiry” is liberated from the usual norms and expectations. These are not lessons aimed at producing an essay at the end or ensuring the ideas of key thinkers are explored - although if any of those things are the natural consequence of a discussion then they can, and sometimes will, be the result. Another aspect of “unleashing” Philosophy is the recognition of Philosophy and philosophical practices which have been historically marginalised because they do not meet the myopic requirements of Western, usually male and usually white, academic philosophical traditions. Not only can such lessons be a place to explore the ideas of women, people of colour, and other marginalised thought ignored currently by most UK exam specifications, but they are a place to experiment with alternative approaches to doing Philosophy itself. Must the focus always be on language? On first principles? On the history of ideas and known thinkers? On strict, compartmentalised and mutually distinct disciplines? On analysis of articles, essays and books? Not when Philosophy is “unleashed”. Likewise, an intention of a Philosophy Unleashed lesson is never to “win” an argument or necessarily reach an agreement. It is merely to apply some tools to first thoughts, gut instincts, and existing narratives and see if they can stand up to scrutiny. Sessions end with the question of whether students found the discussions “useful” or “interesting” more often than they end with any specific conclusions. The idea being that the conversation is ongoing, and there is always room for more thinking around the subject.

This blog was a natural consequence of those lessons. DaN started to write down ideas inspired by the discussions, and notice other things in daily lives which might prompt and stimulate student discussion elsewhere. He wanted to share these for free to try and increase the amount of Philosophy going on in UK schools, and elsewhere.

GET INVOLVED

The original intention was, and still is, for students themselves, or other teachers, to write many of the posts, but so far the number of student submissions has been relatively small. Students asked about this have said the pressures of exam workloads usually keep them from having the time to write something like this “just for fun”, as have other Philosophy teachers asked, but it is worth noting that those students who have published posts on here have frequently gone on to study Philosophy at some of the top universities in the country. If “just for fun” is not a sufficient reason and you want a non-intrinsic reward, therefore, think about how it might look on your UCAS application.

No post should be the final word on any issue they raise. As well as always seeking guest contributors, Philosophy Unleashed welcomes those who take advantage of the comments facility to raise further issues and objections to the posts they read. Keep it kind and keep it thoughtful, but please do comment on posts. And, of course, share, share, share.

If you want the full ORIGIN STORY of Philosophy Unleashed CLICK HERE