123. THOUGHTS ON STRIKING - Why We Need More Striking, Not Less

“As philosophers we can smell fallacious argument a mile off. We know an ad hominem attack when we see one, attacking the person (or people) rather than the actual idea. When it comes to discourse around striking in this country, it seems that fallacy and fear-mongering abound. And I would suggest that if you can’t counter the actual arguments of the unions you should be supporting their strikes, maybe even joining them, rather than complaining about them or attacking their industrial action.”

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122. DUPLICATING SUFFERING - Economics and Ethics When Experimenting With Animals

“a possible case could be made for accepting certain, limited, forms of animal experimentation but not within the current economic system because it is structurally set up to maximise, rather than minimise, the possible duplication of unnecessary suffering due to prioritising intellectual property rights over the rights of non-human (and human) animals.“

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REMINDER: PHILOSOPHY GETS SCHOOLED

The excellent new Philosophy A-level podcast from Simon Kirchin - Philosophy Gets Schooled - continues to put out new episodes, some of which feature Philosophy Unleashed’s DaN McKee. DaN’s on episodes about utilitarianism, war and peace, and eating animals, but there is also an excellent episode out about deontological ethics and Kant too. More are coming out each week and if you are an A-level Philosophy student they come highly recommended! Well worth a listen.

121. CONFIDENCE MAN - What Exactly Do The Conservative Party Have Confidence In?

“According to last week's confidence vote, the majority of Conservative members of Parliament have confidence in the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. 211 out of 359 MPs, or 59%. But what does this actually tell us? And why do we care about their levels of confidence? Should confidence have anything to do with governing in a democracy? And, if it does, ought the question of confidence be put to the demos - the whole population - rather than merely the MPs of the current ruling party, many of whom are frontbenchers dependent on the very Prime Minister whose confidence is in question for their current political and financial success?“

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120. TALKING ABOUT MY CONSTITUTION - Why Conversation Is More Important Than Codification

“The very act of codifying into a constitution the core principles of how your society is to be run is to commit future generations to values that they may not actually hold. It is a normative act, wherein one generation is imposing a set of values in stone on the basis that they believe future generations ought to hold such values. But while human beings remain autonomous agents capable of choosing many different values such an imposition has no guarantee of sticking unless the values are, in fact, actually held by the citizens for whom they are endorsed. This means constitutions are either attempting the impossible and trying to force people into valuing something they don’t value, or they are redundant, as they simply articulate values already held.“

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