Thinking Beyond The Curriculum
Read More“To say there are things of philosophical interest about Donald Trump’s unilateral kidnapping of Venezuela’s president and takeover of the country’s economic resources by force, is to, perhaps, show the failings of philosophy.”
See you all in 2026. Until the New Year, there’s always the ARCHIVE.
Read More“This is not a defence of capitalism, nor a defence of the current order, but it is a defence of the notion that perhaps the proliferation of corporate chain-stores everywhere, which once made me mourn the quirky individuality of the independent high street, is not necessarily a bad thing.“
Read More“Why is there something rather than nothing?” Because the desire to make something can make us redefine the original “nothing” and see new potential in it we were previously blind to.
Read More“Complaints are important in any honest endeavour. A willingness to openness to being told that the thing you’re trying to do is not working and needs to be improved. An honest endeavour wants to hear its complaints because it wants to meet its objectives. It wants to fix those things being complained about.“
Read More“This week all I have for you is a poem I wrote about Nigel Farage…“
Read More“It’s always worth paying attention when you get your insular little bubbles popped. “
Read More“But seeing no good evidence is not a total dismissal of the possibility. Perhaps “paranormal” occurrences have a natural explanation, but that explanation still goes beyond our current understanding of the nature of reality? “
As always, we’re off for half term. If you want some PU though, to see out the end of October, may I suggest our excellent piece from 2024 on The Traitors and Epistemology (for those of you currently watching Celebrity Traitors): https://www.philosophyunleashed.com/theblog/174-the-traitors-and-epistemology-why-were-all-floundering-in-the-dark-about-knowledge
We’ll be back in November!
Read More“As Audre Lorde so famously put it: “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Yet schools, as reproducers of the dominant culture of any given society by design, are the very definition of “the master’s house” and it is they which are giving students their useless tools. “
After last week’s post asking if continuing this project was worthwhile, I appreciate today’s lack of a new post looks like a definitive answer in the negative. It isn’t. It merely symbolises the incompetence of my internet service provider, who have left me offline for nearly a week. There will be a new post when normal service resumes at home. And if you’re thinking about using EE for your broadband — don’t!
A question in need of your answers…
Read MoreRead More"Freedom is not as self-evident as these young people seem to think it is, and an appeal to individual freedom is not the knock-down killer argument they seem to think that it is. In a world where are freedoms are routinely curtailed, often for very good collective reasons, the argument that X can’t be allowed because it will take away some freedom or another is simply insufficient."
Read More“The comfort of thinking it can’t happen here is the surest sign that it is already near. Right on your doorstep, right on your street. Amazing how well we can walk in our sleep”
Read More“the bell rang and I could not think of a response in the thirty seconds I had to dismiss the class so left the question unanswered. I have been thinking about a response ever since so I have decided to write this.“
Read More“We are adrift and discombobulated. Deeply so. “
“Once we did have a symbol of the country that used to make me proud:
hotels welcoming those seeking asylum from persecution with open arms.
Now the hotels are being shut down by angry mobs
and all we have in their place are cheap flags tied from lampposts
wilting damply in the rain. “
Read MoreAs always, Philosophy Unleashed is now on hiatus for the summer. We’ll be back in September with more new philosophy every week during term-time, 6am on a Monday morning. For the next few months, however, there’s always the archive to enjoy!
Read More“Watching the Starmer government continue the same performative cruelty as their Tory predecessors for the last twelve months, I have to admit that all my anarchist and other radical critics were right and I was wrong: the tone of our oppression has not changed under Labour. “
Read More“The third annual conference of the Association of Philosophy Teachers (APT) took place on a beautiful June day at the equally beautiful St Dominic’s Sixth Form College in Harrow last Friday…“