
“Philosophy is not a luxury but a necessity, because we always have to use it when things get difficult”
(Mary Midgley)
Expert help and advice from an experienced academic philosopher
About Me
Hello, I’m Liz, and I am here to help you understand philosophy. Whether you are a school or university student who needs a little extra help, a teacher who needs a resource or a subject refresher for that tricky topic, or just someone who is wondering whether philosophy might help you with your life or job (spoiler: it probably can, but it won’t solve everything) I am here to provide you with the support and advice that you need. Why not get in touch today?
I firmly believe that when things go wrong for us, it’s often because the unspoken philosophical assumptions that underpin our lives have gone wonky in one way or another. Thinking philosophically can help us to get “unstuck” and work out what we need to do next. If you think about it this way, we are all philosophers, whether we know it or not. Often, all we need to do is to bring our philosophical ideas to the surface, articulate them, and see how well they fit with each other and with the world as we experience it.
One of the most common ways that students of philosophy struggle is that they find it difficult to articulate and develop their own views, going beyond simply repeating the things that they have been taught. One of the ways that I can help you is to allow you to see that those ideas were there all along, and then all we need to do is work on refining them.
I have spent quite a few years as a serious ‘grown-up’ academic, both as a teacher and a researcher. I’ve taught everything from huge lecture classes with 300 students to one-to-one dissertation supervisions, and I have edited a book, and published a number of articles in philosophical journals (You can look at my CV here).
Over the years, philosophy has taken me to some exciting places, as well as the lecture and seminar room. I have conducted philosophical nature walks, talked to audiences aged 5-85 at a music festival, and conducted numerous philosophical events in cafes and pubs.
Following the birth of my son, I increasingly came to feel that the world of academia was not right for me at this stage in my life, and decided to hold on to the fun stuff (teaching, writing, and doing philosophy at cool events) and ditch the less fun stuff (departmental committee meetings, lengthy admin, research assessment exercises).
When I am not teaching, writing or talking about philosophy, I am usually painting, walking in pretty places, cooking, and enjoying spending time with my husband and our very tiny philosopher. I am also training to become a psychotherapeutic counsellor.
From the Blog
Holiday
I will be visiting the beautiful Isles of Scilly, and I return to work on the 14th September. If you contact me while I am away I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.
Stories and Narrativity
In psychotherapy, as well as in philosophical ethics, people are often keen on talking about narratives and stories. One thing I’ve noticed a lot, but I’m not sure if I’m being unfair, is a conflation of two different ideas about stories. I feel like most of the stuff I’ve encountered on narrative and story does…
Block Quotes in philosophical writing
I remember being gently admonished by a lecturer when, as a MA student, I submitted a draft that included long block quotations. It is almost always better, I was told, to incorporate short quotations into your own sentences, and paraphrase for the rest. But if it is better, why do so many philosophers continue to…