Category Archives: Philosophy

The social origins of human thinking.

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

What is thinking? Where does human thought come from? How did it evolve? These are important questions for us if we want to understand what makes humans different from other living things and to make the most of our abilities both as … Continue reading →

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Reducing culture to memes

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

The economy of ideas #2 Human culture is such a complex and fluid assemblage of shared knowledge, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, perspectives and practices. How can we even begin to analyse and usefully study it? One way is to break it down into … Continue reading →

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The marketplace of ideas

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

The economy of ideas #1 Can the application of market thinking to any aspect of learning be a good thing? If we support the idea of a universal, comprehensive education system free of markets, selection and hierarchies surely we have … Continue reading →

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Gulliver’s levels

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, first published in 1726, mocks the travel journals of its day with their increasingly fantastical adventures. It is also brilliant social satire, mercilessly tearing through contemporary conventions and pretentions.   It can also be read as a thought … Continue reading →

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Roberto Unger on school as the ‘voice of the future’

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

In his excellent book ‘The Left Alternative’ the Brazilian philosopher and politician Roberto Unger proposes a new way for progressives to think about the future and start creating the good society. Unger suggests we should not give up on the central promise … Continue reading →

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Learning is dialectical

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

An attempt to start from first principles… There is now, there is before and there is after. Whatever time is, our awareness of it helps us distinguish between past and future. Within our own lived experience we understand the difference … Continue reading →

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Gramsci’s grammar and Dewey’s dialectic.

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

James Donald’s ‘Dewey-eyed optimism’ Over 20 years ago I read a short review article which re-examined the relationship between knowledge, skill, vocationalism and a broad liberal education. It helped me see that progressive educators could value knowledge and tradition as … Continue reading →

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Education as a whole and in its parts

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Creating a successful learning community Our college mission is to ‘create a successful learning community’. While this only applies to our small part of the education system it’s not a bad aspiration for the whole system. So what would be … Continue reading →

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Education without metaphors?

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

We love metaphors don’t we? They can help us to express new or complex ideas in term of more familiar ones. They can add richness and drama to our explanations. Good metaphors can help us to understand, organise and interpret … Continue reading →

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Maxine Greene: resisting one-dimensionality

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Maxine Greene, the eminent American teacher, teacher educator and educational philosopher died last month aged 96. She is relatively little known in the UK and her passing doesn’t seem to have registered much in the British education media. It’s too … Continue reading →

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