A place of philosophy by Dr C Livingstone

When I was growing up a canny teacher loaned me his copy of Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder’s tale of a young girl’s journey through, and into, the history of Philosophy. I wonder if he knew that I would identify with young Sophie? He certainly knew that I would love it and he was right: I have been a philosopher ever since that book. 

However, formal study at school is relatively rare, it generally falls under the aegis of Religious Studies rather than as a standalone subject, and while this is an important element of RS, it doesn’t really do it justice. For that reason, the LGS Religion & Philosophy Department now offers bespoke Philosophy sessions to main school pupils and sixth-formers from across the Foundation in both informal clubs, and as a formal enrichment option on Thursday afternoons. But what is Philosophy? 

Well, to take you through the Thursday afternoon option, this year we began with the question: How is it possible to know anything? On our journey we have encountered Descartes’ Meditations, Plato’s Meno, and read and discussed what it is like to be a bat. We’ve analysed the nature of consciousness, taking in Aristotle, Descartes (again!), Heidegger. For a few weeks around Easter we entered into correspondence with an academic at Durham University, Philip Goff, on his fairly left-field promotion of panpsychism. Latterly we are looking at the issue of freedom, following directly from our work on Heidegger, and have covered Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism. 

Proponents of the discipline vaunt its effect on critical thinking skills, and this is absolutely true: a philosopher will always analyse and criticise and synthesise because those are the tools with which we hone our craft. Much more importantly, though, Philosophy appeals to teenagers because it grapples with the same questions they do: Why do I have to obey rules? What is the universe for? What am I for? They realise that these are fundamental questions of the human condition, that they’re not alone in asking them, and that perhaps they’ll find the answer. And if not, they’ll have grown in the asking.