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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…
Dealing with a PhD crisis
This post is adapted from something that I wrote on Facebook over a decade ago, and also left as a physical document in the Postgraduate study room, when I was freshly out of my own PhD. It is a little dated, and I don’t necessarily agree with all of it anymore, but a lot of…
“Teach me how to be original!”
This is one of the most common issues that I have encountered with university students, both in my work as an academic, and as a private tutor. It is also, on the face of it, one of the most difficult ones to solve. However, I’m going to suggest that it isn’t as hard as you…
Religious Language, Wittgenstein, and Language Games in the A-Level Syllabi
I’ve had loads of conversations with A-level students and their teachers about religious studies and philosophy, and one of the topics that always makes them turn pale is religious language, and specifically the stuff on Wittgenstein and language games. This is unsurprising when the resources linked to in the OCR A-level specification are Wittgenstein’s Philosophical…
Dealing with the blank page: how to write philosophy (and probably other stuff) when you really don’t feel like it
I was going to start by saying that everybody gets this. Actually though, some people don’t seem to get this. I know a small number of people come to writing with a beautifully worked-out idea, calmly open a blank Word document, and just write. As the well-turned prose flows from their fingers, they smile calmly…
Psychotherapy in the Cave
The prisoners have lived in the cave their whole lives. Shackled to rough stone, they are forced to stare at dancing shadows projected onto the wall ahead from shapes held before a fire. There is nothing else to see. For them this cruel puppet show is life itself. Since shadows are all that they have…
“You just have to realise that dirt doesn’t matter.”
How I learned to (sort of) manage housework At 37 years young, I developed a routine for housework and managed to stick with it. This might not seem like a big deal for many of you, but it has always been a big struggle for me: the clothes piling up unwashed, heaps of stuff in…
Still mystified after essay feedback? Try an essay health check.
Are you wondering how you can improve your grades in philosophy essays? Sometimes it’s hard to understand why you keep getting the marks that you do, or why you always fall just short of a grade boundary. Perhaps you understand why you got the feedback you did on a particular essay, but you need help…
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