PU#242 - AND I DID NOT SPEAK OUT: On Our Obligation To Acknowledge That Things Are Not Right
Read More“It was important, once, we were told, that we learn the lessons of history. “
222. JUSTIFYING FREEDOM - On Assuming Rights We Might Not Have
Read 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."
215. IT’S OK TO END THINGS - On Saying No Under Capitalism
Read More““I’d prefer not to” - the catchphrase of Melville’s scrivener, Bartleby, is a slogan of privilege. And yet it shouldn’t be. “It’s ok to end things”. And yet for many under capitalism, ending some things are impossible.”
212. A WASTE OF TIME? - How Ought We Spend Our Days?
Read More“the older I get, the more I am coming to realise that everything we do could be perceived as both a potential waste of time, or as precisely what time is there for: to fill it. The assumption that there is an objective “ought” about what we should do with our days is the mistake. “
209. UNWAVERING SUPPORT - Why Do We Do It?
Read More“Had I done something wrong by choosing sense and reason over unwavering support for the team?“
197. ASSISTED DYING - A Reasonable Adjustment to Make
Read More“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.“
194. SHOULD THE STATE CARE ABOUT PRIVATE SCHOOLS? - On the Meaning of Independence
Read More“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
Read More“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.“
188. GRENFELL - On Individual versus Collective Responsibility
Read More"The Grenfell Inquiry blamed everyone for the tragedy that took 72 lives, but if everyone is responsible, is anyone responsible?"
187. SHOUT OUT TO CHILDLESS CAT PEOPLE - Why I Still Don't Want Kids
Read More"In the wake of this summer’s comments from Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, J.D. Vance, about ‘childless cat ladies’ (and as a US citizen who is registered to vote in November and will be voting for Kamala Harris…who actually does have step-children) I thought it might be worth reviewing the sound reasons for my own decision not to have children and defending the decision of others who have done likewise..."
185. THE TONE OF OUR OPPRESSION - On Why This Anarchist Votes
Read More“It is because I am an anarchist, that I will still be voting within a system I don’t believe in for whatever limited, but vital, changes I can bring within that system, to make life better for those it oppresses the most…“
179. INFERRING THE END - Doom-Spiral or Fallacy?
Read More“We had seen the signs that things weren’t going well. That the wheels were falling off a bit. And we had made the inference - this place was going out of business. And the inference was right.“
176. BURN IT DOWN - Why Elitist Institutions Can Never Be Inclusive
Read More“those who cling on to the old ways things were need more than an appeal to their personally liking the old standards to maintain them. They need to explain why keeping the bias, and the inequality and lack of inclusion those biased standards cause, is more important to them than making things better.“
166. WHAT'S IN A NAME? - What The Trivial Can Tell Us About The Significant
Read More“if my utterly inconsequential change of capitalisation could not be easily noted and assimilated into the understanding of work colleagues, friends or family, then I could barely imagine what it would be for a far more important identity marker to be so similarly ignored“
163. THE CLIMATE CRISIS CRISIS - Why The UK Government Is Failing Us
Read More“This week’s Philosophy Unleashed presents a very simple argument…“
162. PRACTICAL ETHICS - When Do Economies Become Unethical?
Read More“I am interested in the question of whether the practical compromises economies necessarily demand on our actions are, in fact, immoral, and whether such immorality makes these economies not only unfit for purpose, but unfit to such a capacity that we actually have a moral duty to replace them?“
159. TAKING STUDENT SILLINESS SERIOUSLY - Lightning McQueen and the Importance of Battling Deepities
Read More“Like garbage washing up on the shore of a polluted sea, the Philosophy classroom is often where a lot of these deepities come to rest as students, impressed by their apparent wisdom, share them with the one person they think will be equally impressed: their Philosophy teacher. Often those students are soon disappointed, even angry, when that teacher is not impressed at all and, instead, pops the bubble of the illusion and exposes its emptiness.“
153. PHILOSOPHY AND THE CORONATION - Questions Raised By The Crowning Of A New King
Read More“The coronation of a new King is an undoubtedly historic moment, but it raises a lot of philosophical questions…“
152. INSPIRED PHILOSOPHY - Where Do Ideas Come From?
Read More“When I sat down to write this post I was uninspired, yet now I have no doubt that I will, yet again, meet my self-imposed deadline and have a new Philosophy Unleashed post completed exactly when it is needed. Inspiration was there all along. I just had to find it. But what is inspiration?“
145. IT'S NICE TO HAVE OPTIONS - Existentialism and UCAS.
Read More“Deciding not to bore the student with Donald Rumsfeld’s treatise on known knowns and known unknowns, I instead decided to offer guidance from the existentialists. That is to say: no real guidance at all. What my student was facing, I suggested, was a living example of the sort of anxiety and despair existentialist philosophers suggested comes from our absolute freedom.“