#SocietySpotlight: A PhilSoc Debate
November 2, 2023
As the next instalment of our #SocietySpotlight series, I’m going to take you through my first PhilSoc debate of the year. I joined PhilSoc during Welcome Week when I wasn’t too sure about joining a society but thought it could be a good way to make friends on my course. I was given an invite …
Are your teachers teaching you well? You can decide…
May 2, 2019
TEACHING. It’s a simple word, and after all these years at school you think you know what it is right? Wrong! I’ve just finished an interesting lecture questioning what teaching is, and I’m going to give you a taste of what philosophy at Nottingham is like… 1. What is teaching? You might think if …
Feeling Empowered: A Day In The Life Of A UoN Philosophy Student
April 10, 2019
This morning I went to a 9am Philosophy lecture and I learnt something; a wild phenomenon considering I hadn’t even had my morning coffee! You’d hope that I did learn something, bearing in mind we were learning about teaching in Teaching and Learning (building). We Philosophers do love a meta moment, sorry. We got told …
Do we need a new concept of teaching? (UoN Philosophy Taster Lecture)
April 5, 2019
After sitting in a philosophy lecture today, I realised that philosophy makes you question EVERYTHING. Including teaching. Image source We discussed Andy Fisher and Jonathan Tallant’s alternative view of teaching. It was so interesting I decided to write a blog about it! What is teaching? 1. Learning Teaching is when someone learns, right? Not necessarily! …
The Power Of Teaching Is In Your Hands
April 3, 2019
Today I attended a super interesting Philosophy lecture here at the Uni of Notts about defining teaching. We discussed a fascinating paper by Fisher and Tallant (lecturers at the Uni no less!) who introduce teaching as judgement-dependent. Don’t fear. I’m here to explain all! 1. The Problem With Teaching ‘What is teaching?’. An important but …
Being ‘rational’ and what you CAN’T expect……
December 20, 2017
This morning I attended a philosophy lecture on a paper by Laurie Paul, and it was actually worth getting up for! (9ams….the struggle is real) I’ll admit I was still waking up when I first arrived, but the question “Is that rational?” Is one I ask regularly. REAL TALK: Paul’s ideas were interesting, so much …
Do we always make the right decisions?
December 13, 2017
This morning I went to a lecture which explored a paper by Laurie Paul on transformative experiences. Her paper has widened my view towards how well humanity are able to make decisions. How do we make rational decisions? A rational decision is one that is straight forward for Paul. We weigh up the values …
Is it a rational decision to click on this link? Lets find out
Making decisions is easy, but how do I know i’m being rational when making these decisions? The UoN Philosophy department took a page from Prof. Laurie Paul in todays taster lecture to investigate… What is a rational decision? Well, a decision must weigh each competing outcome of a choice and be able to assign values to what it will …
Decisions, Decisions: Can We Really Decide?
December 12, 2017
Today I was in a lecture exploring Laurie Paul’s ideas on making decisions.1 She argues that sometimes we can’t use our rationality to decide things (seems weird… but bear with me). If you think that you rationally decided to get your new kitten, or to go travelling… Think again. Intrigued? Here are the top 3 …
How Philosophy can Help you Make Decisions
December 11, 2017
Everyone knows that you can always make rational decisions. Right? Last week I sat in on a lecture that convinced me otherwise. 1. What is a rational decision? Rational decisions seem complicated. However they’re actually very simple. All you have to do is choose the action that you think will lead to the best outcome. …