70. TRUMP, UNFORTUNATELY, HAS NOT BEEN SILENCED - Thoughts on Freedom of Speech in the Digital Age

January 18, 2021 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, Censorship, Culture, Education, Elections, Ethics, Free Speech, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Good ideas grow, bad ideas shrink. As a consequence, good speech gets louder and bad speech soon gets drowned out. Not censorship, but developed understanding and evolution towards better ideas that, at a certain point, recognise certain voices as no longer worthy of being listened to. The fascists, the racists, the sexists, the homophobes, the conspiracy theorists - they have little to offer once we look beyond mere transgression and take the ideas seriously as speech. And so, rightly, they are discarded.“

69. WHAT, IF ANYTHING, HAVE I LEARNT FROM HAVING COVID 19? - Reflections on Getting the Plague

January 11, 2021 by DaN McKee in Christmas, COVID19, Culture, Death, Education, Epistemology, Ethics, Free, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“now it is three weeks since the day I got my positive COVID test, and I cautiously think I may have survived it, I have decided to look back at the experience to see what, if any, philosophical lessons it taught me.“

65. IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE COVID-CHRISTMAS - Re-Thinking The 2020 Festive Season

November 23, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Death, Ethics, New Year, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Christmas

“The Grinch who steals Christmas this year isn’t COVID 19, it’s the mindset that is so rigid about what Christmas has to be it can’t conceive of doing things differently.“

61. WEAR A MASK - Why Exercising Personal Freedom Should Not Come at the Expense of Others

October 19, 2020 by DaN McKee in Charity, COVID19, Culture, Death, Ethics, Free, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Unfortunately there is a school of though around masks that equates personal liberty with the freedom not to wear one, regardless of the potential consequences. A selfish conception of what it means to be free that ignores our social connections with, and the needs of, others for personal desire and gain.”

55. THE WORLD (NOT JUST AMERICA) NEEDS BIDEN TO WIN THE 2020 ELECTION: A Student in the UK Weighs in on the Ethics of American Voting

September 07, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Economics, Ethics, History, Militarisation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Student Writing, Elections

“since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the US has gone from perceived leader of the free world and centre of cooperation to a nation which continues to pull out of global organisations which ensure global security, health and sustainability, hence damaging the capability of all nations to respond to aggressive nations, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic“

52. WRESTLING WITH THE GUILT OF WRESTLING: Can You Be An Ethical Person and Support an Unethical Business?

June 29, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Pop Culture, Work

“As a philosopher, especially a philosopher interested in ethics, it was the latest in a list that feels far too long of moral wrongs surrounding the industry that it feels increasingly impossible to turn a blind eye towards. I have been a fan since April of 1992, but this may have been the month wrestling and I finally have to part ways.”

50. THE PROBLEM WITH CIS-NORMATIVITY TO A NON-PASSING TRANS WOMAN - A Student Asks Us To Confront The Consequences Of Cis-Normative Thinking

June 15, 2020 by DaN McKee in Culture, Education, Ethics, Free, Identity, Mental Health, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Student Writing, Suicide, Gender

“Cis-normative thinking therefore has disastrous consequences when it perpetuates the idea of passing being a requirement for those who aren’t cisgender“

49. AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY & COVID 19: a Postscript on a Pandemic

June 14, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Book, COVID19, Economics, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Authentic Democracy

“Unfortunately for the world, though helpful to my book, far from illustrating the necessity of government, Covid-19 has served only to support the thesis defended within the pages of Authentic Democracy, proving even further how our current, flawed, political arrangements continue to fail us.“

48. WHY THIS UPRISING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAS A MATTER OF WHEN, NOT IF - A Student Questions The Limits of Peaceful Protest

June 08, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Culture, Death, Education, Ethics, Free Speech, Identity, Militarisation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Student Writing, Racism, Black Lives Matter

“The reason we are seeing such outrage, and even riots, in the U.S.A today is due to the level of systematic oppression that black people have faced across the world for much of the last millennium”

47. A LIFE WITHOUT SANCTIONS - Thinking About Consequences And Their Lack In An Age Without Punishment

June 01, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, COVID19, Culture, Death, Education, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School

“Sanctions, punishments, threats…these may bring some short term sense of comfort that justice is being done, but true justice comes when we no longer need such threats to ensure good behaviour. When the logic of the genuine consequences of an action is enough to make people make better choices. When police aren’t racists and politicians aren’t liars because the obvious wrongness of being a racist or a liar, and its logical consequence in the death and suffering of innocent people, is sufficient to not want to be racist or lie. “

45a. THERE IS NO ARGUMENT FOR RE-OPENING UK SCHOOLS YET - To Warrant Change, Something Significant Needs To Have Changed

May 11, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Data, Economics, Education, Epistemology, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Work

“When the stakes are this high (life and death) we need to be able to separate nostalgia and sentiment for what is sensible and what is necessary. “

- Commercial Break: NEW BOOK OUT NOW - →

May 01, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Book

My new book - Authentic Democracy: An Ethical Justification of Anarchism - is out now as an e-book on Amazon and out in paperback from May 11th. Pre-order now from the publisher, Tippermuir Books, or from Amazon.

41. TO CLAP OR TO CRY FOR CARERS? - On The Importance of Being Able To Hold Two Ideas In Our Heads At Once

April 24, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, COVID19, Charity, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Meaning, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“By clapping, was I supporting the myth, the propaganda, and the lies which have put so many unnecessarily in harm’s way during this crisis? From the unprotected nurse to their dying patient, infected because they couldn’t stay home for fear of losing their job - each a victim not of Covid-19, but of our political system?”

40. CAN WE USE THE CORONAVIRUS TO SAVE THE PLANET? - A Student Ponders The Positives of This Pandemic

April 20, 2020 by DaN McKee in Animal Rights, COVID19, Culture, Environment, Ethics, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Student Writing, Vegetarianism

“Currently we know little about the virus, but we have not denied the science. We accept that it is a major issue that needs to be tackled. In comparison we know a lot about the effect of climate change. However, we do not treat climate change with the same sense of urgency than the virus. “

38. QUESTIONS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD - Some Concerns and Queries As COVID-19 Continues To Spread

March 23, 2020 by DaN McKee in Work, School, Politics, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Obligation, Mental Health, History, Ethics, Epistemology, Education, Culture, COVID19

“the world has changed. And here are the questions arising to me as it does…”

37. ELEMENTARY LOGIC - Why UK Schools Must Close Now

March 17, 2020 by DaN McKee in Education, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School, Work, COVID19

“In the name of public health, but also sense and logic, we must close all UK schools now.”

36. COVID-19 AND PHILOSOPHY: Thinking Clearly In Times of Uncertainty

March 15, 2020 by DaN McKee in Culture, Death, Education, Ethics, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School, Work, COVID19

“Doing the right thing only becomes hard when we have constructed a world which puts embedded obstacles in the way of doing so.”

33. NO TO CHILDREN, YES TO THE PLANET - Should We Subscribe To Ecological Anti-Natalist Views?

February 24, 2020 by DaN McKee in Animal Rights, Death, Economics, Environment, Ethics, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Religion, Student Writing, Vegetarianism

“Ecological anti-natalism is the position that procreation leads to more destruction of our planet and therefore more suffering so it is morally bad, therefore we should abstain from it. I shall argue why we should take this view into account.”

31. GET WELL SOON - What Our Ethic of Personal Illness May Tell Us About Our Wider Hopes to be Ethical People

February 03, 2020 by DaN McKee in Ethics, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, School, Work, COVID19

“Possibly our lack of ethical concern about the spreading of diseases, speaks to our larger ethical deficit when it comes to sacrificing our own immediate pleasures for the greater good of others: the clothing that we want despite the potential bad treatment of workers who made them; the holiday that we want despite the environmental impact of our journey; the social media we enjoy despite the potential epistemic breakdown it is causing for many of our civilisation-sustaining institutions… “

30. REBEL VEGETARIAN - Why It May Be Morally Right For Ethical Vegetarians and Vegans to Eat Burger King and KFC's Plant-Based Products Despite Their Non-Veggie Cooking Methods

January 27, 2020 by DaN McKee in Animal Rights, Economics, Environment, Ethics, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Vegetarianism

“the recent story of Burger King’s “Rebel Whopper” has brought to the forefront of my mind the strange diversity of motivation which make people choose to cut out meat and/or dairy from their diets, and the resulting consequences, and potential for error, within ethical thinking.”