PU #241 - MAKING PHILOSOPHY MATTER: On the Second Annual British Philosophy Fortnight
This week marks the second week of the second annual British Philosophy Fortnight, and a continuation of the theme #PhilosophyMatters. BPF is a period of time, created by the British Philosophical Association, to make, loudly, the public argument for the importance of Philosophy in different areas of life. It is an attempt to celebrate Philosophy’s importance and fight for its continued existence in universities and schools which are increasingly under pressure to reduce curriculum offerings to meet budget-tightened bottom lines. British Philosophy Fortnight has the potential to be a very good thing, and last year I was an active part of the campaign, featuring in this video making the case for the importance of Philosophy in schools.
I say: “Philosophy matters 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.”
I also wrote this piece for Philosophy Unleashed about it, interrogating the claim “philosophy matters” and asking if it really does, and this other piece looking at examples of Philosophy mattering in my own classroom.
This year I haven’t been as active with the campaign. I’m not sure why? Perhaps it is because posts like the one I wrote last year are not gung-ho enough about the wonders of philosophy to be widely shared and distributed as part of the pro-philosophy spirit of the fortnight? After all, as a philosopher is wont to do, I didn’t simply accept the premise that philosophy did matter, I questioned it. I considered all the ways in which it might not matter too. The harms philosophy might do. This muddies the message somewhat, even if it ultimately comes out in philosophy’s favour. One of the problems of philosophy is that philosophical thinking is nuanced thinking, and not necessarily easily crammed into simplistic slogans and commercial messaging.
I remember in my early years as a teacher I was asked back to the consortium that trained me to talk about my experiences in the job market and how I found the right school for me. I turned up to the talk and shared my thoughts with the group of new teachers, telling them not to settle for exploitation and bullshit. That each school is different and that you might think you hate teaching but if you work in a few different places you might discover that you just hate the one particular school you are stuck in. I told them to shop around and find the right place for them and not get rushed into the wrong place just because there was pressure from the course to be in position by September so that their numbers looked good to inspectors.
I wasn’t invited back.
But that’s Philosophy for you. We say it like we see it and provide the arguments for how we see it in the hopes that someone will argue back and prove us wrong if there is a mistake in our reasoning. All too often, outside of the Philosophy classroom, such counter-arguments aren’t given. We are simply considered a nuisance, called rude for not towing the party line or stepping beyond our station, and the conversation is shut down. The Socratic gadfly is so frequently unwelcome when all people want is an easy life. That’s why people killed Socrates: that tendency to question and think things through instead of just blindly going along with the unexamined life is frustrating to the powers that be that either do not like scrutiny or haven’t the time or inclination to change their plans.
It is also why Philosophy matters so much. If philosophers aren’t going to do it, who will? And if no-one asks those difficult questions, how much damage will be done by people in power with big ideas but very little thinking around those ideas and their impact?
British Philosophy Fortnight is a big idea. Part of my hesitance to get stuck in again this time round is witnessing the impact, or lack thereof, of the last one. Isn’t the very definition of insanity citing the same unattributed quote from the internet time and time again and expecting it to have resonance this time when it didn’t the three hundred other times you used it? Or something like that? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
Did BPF save Philosophy last year? Did it even get people talking about Philosophy who weren’t already talking about it? The only places I saw the hashtags being shared were from people and places I already followed as a philosopher. Talking to ourselves about how the thing we do matter doesn’t really help convince others outside of our pre-existing bubble. Though events were attended, were the people attending those who previously thought Philosophy didn’t matter, or people already Philosophy-curious and attending only because these events were better advertised? And more to the point, what happened in the remaining 50 weeks of the year? Where did the events, and the momentum, go?
From my own point of view as a school teacher of Philosophy, working outside of the University Philosophy world, it was disappointing to start the year with a message from the Association of Philosophy Teachers announcing that, due to the failure of lobbying politicians about the ways in which Philosophy matters, it was maybe time to stop focusing on establishing Philosophy’s subject independence from Religious Studies on the school curriculum and, for the time being, continue with Philosophy living, as it currently does in most schools, through the backdoor of Religious Education, permanently entangled with Theology instead of being seen for a valuable discipline in its own right. The very thing the APT was initially set up to try to redress.
It was disappointing because the lobbying was a large part of the BPF2025, with a big launch event at Senate House and discussion with politicians about the importance of Philosophy in Schools. The message from the APT was that, essentially, the #PhilosophyMatters approach has not worked. Given that activists the world over, of varying stripes, have long debated the efficacy of “hashtag activism”, is it any surprise? Has #FreePalestine freed Palestine? Did #BlackLivesMatter end police violence against Black people? Did #MAGA make America great again? Why would #PhilosophyMatters make philosophy matter?
I might be wrong, but I don’t think a hashtag that didn’t work in 2025 will suddenly go viral and have impact in 2026 either.
I love Philosophy. I believe that it matters. I have dedicated my life to evangelising about the value of Philosophy, including writing this blog for the last seven years. I love the idea of a fortnight celebrating Philosophy’s worth. But I am not sure that the way we are doing it is resonating beyond the borders of those already convinced of Philosophy’s importance.
I also question the wisdom of it being a specifically British Philosophy fortnight. Why British? Surely any philosopher worth their salt has already acknowledged the arbitrariness of national borders and boundaries? If we’re making up the terms of our own philosophical celebration, why not do away with such exclusionary language and at least have a Philosophy Fortnight, open to all philosophers around the world? After all, Philosophy departments are closing and philosophical thinking is being attacked all around the globe, not just in Great Britain. Why be so myopic?
Ultimately British Philosophy Fortnight is a marketing exercise. As such, those selling the product — Philosophy — need to ask who their target audience is and what is Philosophy’s USP? Is two weeks of lectures, film screenings, workshops, conferences, and public debates (mostly held at universities) the thing that’s going to change someone’s mind? Will sharing a positive quote from someone already doing Philosophy about why they like it make those not doing it pay attention and take notice? I’m not entirely convinced. And if promoting our discipline through a marketing strategy that seems ill-thought-out and ineffective is the best we can come up with, is that much of a commercial for the value of philosophical thinking?
Author: DaN McKee (He/Him)
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