263. BANGING THE DRUM FOR PHILOSOPHY - How Music Can Reveal What Is Hidden

January 26, 2026 by DaN McKee in Punk, Truth, Philosophy Unleashed, Perception, Philosophy, Art, Epistemology, Music

“It is one of the oldest questions in philosophy — to ask if the world we perceive is the world as it really is. If what we think we know about the world from our experiences is the truth about the world. In many ways the drums are a perfect instrument for showing us this. After all, their job in a song is to make explicit hidden time signature(s) the music is following. Reveal the ticking of an internal clock that has always been pulsing just beneath the perceptual surface.”

214. I'M GOING FOR A WALK - Connecting and Disconnecting from Nature

June 02, 2025 by DaN McKee in Environment, Meaning, Perception, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Nature

“We take these walks through nature, I think, on some deep level, to remind ourselves that the majority of our lives are illusions. That nothing is permanent and eventually the march of nature will stomp right through our assured lies that we are someone separate from it; somehow protected. We check in with the world as it really is, to both maintain the illusion for little while longer once we get home, and to ready ourselves for what is inevitable: when the illusion necessarily ends.“

204. START THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE - Time to Name Trump For What He Is

February 10, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“humanity routinely ignores the evidence of their eyes to make the common, everyday, standard oppressions and violences that are going on to people other than themselves ‘inconceivable’“

156. USE YOUR ILLUSION - Magicians and Reality

June 05, 2023 by DaN McKee in Epistemology, Meaning, Perception, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Truth

“I used to think it was the clowns who were the real heroes - speaking truth to power about the absurdity of power and mocking those in authority with satire and parody. But nowadays I think it might be the magicians.“

144. CHALLENGING PERCEPTIONS - Why Top Tier Football Clubs Continue To Do Women's Football A Disservice

January 30, 2023 by DaN McKee in Communication, Culture, Education, Ethics, Gender, Identity, Meaning, Perception, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Sport

“Why complain about this in a philosophy blog? Because a perpetual area of philosophical inquiry concerns perception versus reality, and sometimes this coming apart of perception from reality (or reality from perception) often leads to questions in ethics too. I believe this problem - of the women’s teams of football clubs not sharing the same home ground as their male counterparts - touches on both.“

118. SHOWING OUR TRUE SELVES - What Does It Tell Us When We Tidy Our House?

May 16, 2022 by DaN McKee in Culture, Obligation, Perception, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed

“If we all are running around like headless chickens to make things look nice whenever someone visits then that must mean that none of us actually live our lives in the way that we present to others that we do.“

116. NOTHING IS REAL AND YET EVERYTHING IS REAL - On Constructing A Better Reality

April 25, 2022 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Epistemology, Existentialism, Meaning, Mind, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Perception

“Consider: it cannot both be true that advertising has no influence on our thinking and that people spend over £23bn a year on advertising. At worst, people are spending their twenty three billion pounds to influence us in a range of ways we are barely aware of. At best, the only advertising that has ever worked is the advertising for advertising itself which has convinced so many people to spend billions on a product which is utterly useless. Which means advertising does still work.“

82. IS ALL REALITY VIRTUAL? - Reflecting On My Lack Of Concern About VR

May 10, 2021 by DaN McKee in Epistemology, Meaning, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Technology

“there are many philosophical anti-realists who accept the non-existence or possible non-existence of widely believed concepts or experiences and yet advocate living as if they are real nevertheless, for a wide range of reasons.“

67. DISPATCHES FROM THE CAVE - Why Being "Realistic" Demands The Impossible

December 07, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, COVID19, Culture, Economics, Education, Elections, Environment, Epistemology, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School, Work

“The pandemic has shown just how flimsy “the way things are” actually are. From basic norms of social interaction to entire economic systems, COVID-19 has unwittingly acted as the liberating hand breaking the chains of Plato’s epistemological prisoner and dragging them out of the cave and into the light…This isn’t, however, a post about the coronavirus…“

18. APPEARANCE VS REALITY - A Student Questions How Well We Can Ever Truly "Know" Anybody...and What We Can Do, If Anything, To Protect Ourselves From Getting Hurt.

October 14, 2019 by DaN McKee in Epistemology, Identity, Philosophy Unleashed, Student Writing

“Philosophy has long had a tradition of asking questions about the difference of appearance versus reality and today I want to talk about how people appear to you compared to how they really may be inside.”