Revitalising Phenomenology

February 16, 2016

I have just reviewed Claudo Romano's There Is: The Event and the Finitude of Appearing for Phenomenological Reviews. This was an engaging read and encounter with this rigorous exploration of phenomenology. Romano is really insightful in his commitment to phenomenology and resolute in seeking to find answers here to contemporary problems.  Rather than a turn to the pre-critical era of philosophy or to natural science we find a thorough engagement with phenomenology that reveals its vital and living core.  In addition, some original sources outside of this tradition are invoked to shake up and revitalise phenomenology.  The contemporary relevance of this human science is at stake. 

 

The Continuing Threat to Philosophy in Universities

August 8, 2015

Alarming news about the future of Heythrop College has emerged.  The loss of its undergraduate philosophy and theology courses always means that years of work creating a community of students and scholars exploring a subject together is sacrificed.

I first came into contact with Heythrop College as a sixth form student.  I attended a couple of events where Heythrop’s Peter Vardy was speaking in his engaging and enlivening way. He managed to inspire us with the power of philosophy to account ...


Continue reading...
 

Becoming Transdisciplinary with Freud

May 5, 2014

A recent issue of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts features an article which charts the history of the concept of sublimation in order to reveal its transdisciplinary dynamics. In so doing it offers a way of understanding how transdisciplinarity comes about and functions. In his exploration entitled ‘On the Transdisciplinarity of Freudian Sublimation’ Jonathan Michael Dickstein highlights the cooperation of different disciplines.  He argues that this is the result of their mutual de...


Continue reading...
 

Discussions of A-level Philosophy Changes

February 12, 2014

An article on the Guardian ‘Comment is Free’ website responds to the AQA exam board’s proposals for a new A-level philosophy specification. Under the title ‘Philosophy is not religion. It must not be taught that way’ Charlie Duncan Saffrey raises major problems with the changes.  I agree with the thrust of his argument which is the need to distinguish philosophy at A-level. The author has taught the current specification and values its breadth and depth of engagement with philosophy...


Continue reading...
 

Update on A-Level Philosophy

February 2, 2014

The British Philosophical Association has posted a statement on its website concerning the proposed changes to the AQA A-level Philosophy specification.  In my last post I criticised the proposals for the restrictions they place on the areas of philosophy that can be studied and their similarity to the religious studies A-levels.  The BPA offer a defence of the proposed changes which refers to urgent problems with the current specification.

Many concerns have been raised about the clarity of...


Continue reading...
 

Proposals for A-Level Philosophy

January 28, 2014

The mailing list Philos-l brings alarming news about The Future of A-level Philosophy.  In a previous post I sought to defend this qualification and to question the increasing move towards the philosophical aspects of the religious studies A-level in school sixth forms.  Rather than going into either subject in sufficient depth and breadth there is a tendency to focus on the areas these two subjects have in common.  Now AQA are planning changes to A-level philosophy which bring it much closer...


Continue reading...
 

Finding a Way to Argue: Stefan Collini's 'What are Universities for?'

January 18, 2014

Stefan Collini’s What are Universities For? (Penguin, 2012) is a book that it is difficult to ignore.  It has been prominently displayed in bookshops and has caught my eye as I wandered past in search of the philosophy section.  Writing a book on a current and pressing problem which has real depth and critical force is a difficult thing to do.  Problems like this are generally staged in over-determined spaces of public debate where the alternatives, the language and the very being of the pr...


Continue reading...
 

Being Practical?

April 12, 2013

Is being ‘interdisciplinary’ an entirely practical thing?  Conferences and books that cross disciplines aim to practice interdisciplinary.  They do not theorise but engage in interdisciplinary activities.  They find places where disciplines meet or can potentially meet in tackling a problem or thinking about an object.

There are interdisciplinary centres which seek to represent this work and challenge the pressure of specialisation which creates ever higher boundaries and exclusive dom...


Continue reading...
 

Negotiating the Flood

April 11, 2013

“I am not exaggerating when I say that this flood [of academic publishing] is eroding academic intellectual life. It has become impossible for anyone to maintain an overview of a single, even fairly narrow subject - let alone a discipline as a whole.  When I began work on a PhD on the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in the late 1970s, it was possible for me to keep up with almost everything new that was being published on Hobbes in Britain, the US and western Europe, while devoting most of my t...


Continue reading...
 

Distinguishing Philosophy at A-level

April 9, 2013

Lately I have been considering the current state of the teaching of philosophy at A-level.  There is a philosophy A-level offered by AQA.  This is an excellent course because it requires students to develop significant subject knowledge and to tackle core problems in philosophy.  However, increasingly schools are offering the subject of ‘philosophy and ethics’ at A-level when this refers to certain modules on the various A-levels in religious studies offered by OCR, AQA and Edexcel.

My...


Continue reading...
 

Revitalising Phenomenology

February 16, 2016

I have just reviewed Claudo Romano's There Is: The Event and the Finitude of Appearing for Phenomenological Reviews. This was an engaging read and encounter with this rigorous exploration of phenomenology. Romano is really insightful in his commitment to phenomenology and resolute in seeking to find answers here to contemporary problems.  Rather than a turn to the pre-critical era of philosophy or to natural science we find a thorough engagement with phenomenology that reveals its vital and living core.  In addition, some original sources outside of this tradition are invoked to shake up and revitalise phenomenology.  The contemporary relevance of this human science is at stake. 

 

The Continuing Threat to Philosophy in Universities

August 8, 2015

Alarming news about the future of Heythrop College has emerged.  The loss of its undergraduate philosophy and theology courses always means that years of work creating a community of students and scholars exploring a subject together is sacrificed.

I first came into contact with Heythrop College as a sixth form student.  I attended a couple of events where Heythrop’s Peter Vardy was speaking in his engaging and enlivening way. He managed to inspire us with the power of philosophy to account ...


Continue reading...
 

Becoming Transdisciplinary with Freud

May 5, 2014

A recent issue of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts features an article which charts the history of the concept of sublimation in order to reveal its transdisciplinary dynamics. In so doing it offers a way of understanding how transdisciplinarity comes about and functions. In his exploration entitled ‘On the Transdisciplinarity of Freudian Sublimation’ Jonathan Michael Dickstein highlights the cooperation of different disciplines.  He argues that this is the result of their mutual de...


Continue reading...
 

Discussions of A-level Philosophy Changes

February 12, 2014

An article on the Guardian ‘Comment is Free’ website responds to the AQA exam board’s proposals for a new A-level philosophy specification. Under the title ‘Philosophy is not religion. It must not be taught that way’ Charlie Duncan Saffrey raises major problems with the changes.  I agree with the thrust of his argument which is the need to distinguish philosophy at A-level. The author has taught the current specification and values its breadth and depth of engagement with philosophy...


Continue reading...
 

Update on A-Level Philosophy

February 2, 2014

The British Philosophical Association has posted a statement on its website concerning the proposed changes to the AQA A-level Philosophy specification.  In my last post I criticised the proposals for the restrictions they place on the areas of philosophy that can be studied and their similarity to the religious studies A-levels.  The BPA offer a defence of the proposed changes which refers to urgent problems with the current specification.

Many concerns have been raised about the clarity of...


Continue reading...
 

Proposals for A-Level Philosophy

January 28, 2014

The mailing list Philos-l brings alarming news about The Future of A-level Philosophy.  In a previous post I sought to defend this qualification and to question the increasing move towards the philosophical aspects of the religious studies A-level in school sixth forms.  Rather than going into either subject in sufficient depth and breadth there is a tendency to focus on the areas these two subjects have in common.  Now AQA are planning changes to A-level philosophy which bring it much closer...


Continue reading...
 

Finding a Way to Argue: Stefan Collini's 'What are Universities for?'

January 18, 2014

Stefan Collini’s What are Universities For? (Penguin, 2012) is a book that it is difficult to ignore.  It has been prominently displayed in bookshops and has caught my eye as I wandered past in search of the philosophy section.  Writing a book on a current and pressing problem which has real depth and critical force is a difficult thing to do.  Problems like this are generally staged in over-determined spaces of public debate where the alternatives, the language and the very being of the pr...


Continue reading...
 

Being Practical?

April 12, 2013

Is being ‘interdisciplinary’ an entirely practical thing?  Conferences and books that cross disciplines aim to practice interdisciplinary.  They do not theorise but engage in interdisciplinary activities.  They find places where disciplines meet or can potentially meet in tackling a problem or thinking about an object.

There are interdisciplinary centres which seek to represent this work and challenge the pressure of specialisation which creates ever higher boundaries and exclusive dom...


Continue reading...
 

Negotiating the Flood

April 11, 2013

“I am not exaggerating when I say that this flood [of academic publishing] is eroding academic intellectual life. It has become impossible for anyone to maintain an overview of a single, even fairly narrow subject - let alone a discipline as a whole.  When I began work on a PhD on the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in the late 1970s, it was possible for me to keep up with almost everything new that was being published on Hobbes in Britain, the US and western Europe, while devoting most of my t...


Continue reading...
 

Distinguishing Philosophy at A-level

April 9, 2013

Lately I have been considering the current state of the teaching of philosophy at A-level.  There is a philosophy A-level offered by AQA.  This is an excellent course because it requires students to develop significant subject knowledge and to tackle core problems in philosophy.  However, increasingly schools are offering the subject of ‘philosophy and ethics’ at A-level when this refers to certain modules on the various A-levels in religious studies offered by OCR, AQA and Edexcel.

My...


Continue reading...
 

 

 

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