208. WHY #PHILOSOPHYMATTERS IN THE CLASSROOM - Reports from the Field

March 24, 2025 by DaN McKee in Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Education, School, Teaching

“#PhilosophyMatters to students because it’s a unique space in the school curriculum where they’re taught to take everything they think they know and see if this received wisdom can stand up to philosophical scrutiny. Including the wisdom they receive in the philosophy classroom itself. In a world where we are increasingly bombarded with truth-claims, and information and misinformation is coming at us without any distinction between the two, when students have the tools to be able to analyse claims for their validity, it’s a vital intellectual self-defence that we should want all young people to have. And that is why #PhilosophyMatters.“

207. #PHILOSOPHYMATTERS - Doesn't it?

March 17, 2025 by DaN McKee in Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed

“Part of my answer of why #PhilosophyMatters to students is that Philosophy is a unique space on the school curriculum where students are able to take received wisdom - including the wisdom they learn in the Philosophy classroom - and see if it stands up to philosophical scrutiny. So I thought it would be worth doing exactly that with the claim that #PhilosophyMatters and asking - does it?“

206. THE IDIOTS ARE TAKING OVER - Is Culture Getting More Stupid?

March 10, 2025 by DaN McKee in Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Education, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Teaching

“We teachers are complicit in any increased “dumbness” our culture is showing because we are often the ones dumbing things down for the next generation.“

205. SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: A Philosophy for Life

February 24, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, History, Improv, Media, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Television

“This month marks the 50th anniversary of long-running (fifty years!) American sketch comedy TV show, Saturday Night Live. To celebrate, I thought it worth taking a look at the philosophical life lessons its fifty year success story can teach us.“

204. START THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE - Time to Name Trump For What He Is

February 10, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“humanity routinely ignores the evidence of their eyes to make the common, everyday, standard oppressions and violences that are going on to people other than themselves ‘inconceivable’“

203. IN THE DARK - Medicine, Epistemology and Economics

February 03, 2025 by DaN McKee in Economics, Epistemology, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Medicine

“I wonder if the economics of medicine are too-often overlooked, even in countries with a decent free public healthcare system. I wonder how many people have lived or died because of investigations presenting as questions of epistemology - how can we possibly know what is going on in this body? - which are actually questions of finance - can we justify the expenditure it would take to find out?“

202. PROGRESSING EVER BACKWARDS - Why This World and Not Another?

January 27, 2025 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, Culture, Elections, History, Media, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Truth

“Trump is a symptom, not the sickness itself. There are other possible worlds where his overt peddling of misinformation and self-evident unfitness for office were immediate disqualifiers for an informed voting public. Where his allusions to Nazism and explicit fascistic authoritarianism were repulsive to us instead of something which won him votes. Where the intention disrupting of democratic institutions and surrounding himself with an oligarchy of tech billionaires rang alarm bells instead of raised cheers of support. That we do not live in one of those worlds should be the thing we ask the most questions about.“

201. THE FORBIDDEN BEAT - Should I Stop Listening to Marilyn Manson?

January 20, 2025 by DaN McKee in Censorship, Communication, Culture, Economics, Media, Music, Movies, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Punishment

“Manson always was a symptom and not a cause of the social sickness he personified. Watching the documentary this week simply reminded me that the world which created him continues to fail to confront the true causes of its sickness, and points the finger at individuals we can demonise instead of looking in the mirror and asking why such demons continue to exist.“

200. WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OURSELVES? - Ethical Digital Hygiene

January 13, 2025 by DaN McKee in Communication, Culture, Ethics, Mental Health, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Social Media, Technology

“why do I get news headlines sent to my phone?“

199. DOES SANTA EXIST? - A Christmas Inquiry

December 17, 2024 by DaN McKee in Christmas, Culture, Epistemology, Ethics, Gifts, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, School

“I pointed out that while their ‘evidence’ certainly seemed to point to the idea that none of them were being given gifts from Santa - at least not on the Christmases in question - it did not completely remove the possibility that Santa Claus might still exist…“

198. NOT DEALING WITH TRAUMA - Why We Need to do Some Work Before Returning to Normal

December 02, 2024 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Mental Health, History, Culture, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Racism

“And now normal is what happens when we live so long in denial about our generational wounds that they fester and metastasise into something ugly and, possibly, untreatable.”

197. ASSISTED DYING - A Reasonable Adjustment to Make

November 25, 2024 by DaN McKee in Death, Ethics, Free, Mental Health, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“one could even call it a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to ensure one’s universal ability to end one’s own life is not unfairly denied to people just because of a physical disability (a protected characteristic under UK law). Not allowing assisted suicide is discriminatory to those of us without the physical capability for killing ourselves.“

196. ARGUMENTS DON'T WORK - And I Won't Be Able to Convince You

November 18, 2024 by DaN McKee in Communication, Logic, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed

“I have been thinking about arguments. And the more I do, the more I think they don’t actually convince anyone of anything.“

195. RECKONING WITH THE ELECTION - Reflections on a Soul-Crushing Week

November 11, 2024 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, Culture, Elections, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Either I’d got Trump wrong, or I’d got the morality of my fellow citizens wrong? And neither explanation was particularly comforting.“

194. SHOULD THE STATE CARE ABOUT PRIVATE SCHOOLS? - On the Meaning of Independence

November 04, 2024 by DaN McKee in Education, Ethics, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School, Teaching

“the conversation around VAT on independent schools being a conversation purely based around money, costs and affordability, instead of it being a serious public conversation around education and what a good education should look like is a conversation that fails to address what really ails the current state school system and what the advantages of going to, or working in, the independent sector actually are. “

193. THE WRONG CHOICE - Why Voting for Trump is More Than Just A Choice I Disagree With

October 21, 2024 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, Elections, Ethics, History, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Sometimes, when given a completely free choice, to choose any other way but one can be so self-sabotaging that there really is no choice at all. The 2024 US election is one such case. Whoever wins, we lose, but if Trump wins, what we lose is so significant we may never be able to win again.“

192. BAND PRAXIS - Punk and the Anarchist Squint

October 20, 2024 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Book, Culture, Economics, Identity, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Punk

Band Praxis - Punk and the Anarchist Squint by DaN McKee (taken from The Anarchism and Punk Book Project’s Book 2 - DIY or Die: Do it Yourself, Do it Together & Punk Anarchism)

191. WRESTLING WITH DONALD TRUMP - Why We Ignore The Wrestling Connection at Our Peril

October 07, 2024 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, Culture, Communication, Elections, Epistemology, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Pop Culture, Television, Wrestling

"Trump is undoubtedly a monster. Trump is a massive threat to the kind of democracy that all Americans should hold dear. But he is using the playbook of professional wrestling to win the White House once again and is therefore a monster we are responsible for keeping alive so long as we continue to not take the influence of professional wrestling on politics seriously."

190. TWO STUDENTS, BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY - On The Illusion of Individual Exam Success

September 29, 2024 by DaN McKee in Education, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, School

"Does a grade truly reflect the work and ability of a student, or is it merely a result of a context and circumstance over which the student is powerless?"

189. THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE - Still Haunting AI

September 23, 2024 by DaN McKee in Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Justice, Mind, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Student Writing

"if these AI machines were conscious then we would effectively be using them as our slaves; they do not have a choice in the matter and are also not getting paid. This raises important questions on the morality of the use of AI" A student writes on AI and slavery...