On July 2, I’ll be interviewed by a man of integrity, Will Knowland, who was sacked from his teaching position at England’s prestigious Eton College.
Here are two pieces of journalism on the context and results: Will Knowland was sacked from Eton College over video ‘The Patriarchy Paradox’ and Mixed race wife of Eton teacher sacked over ‘toxic masculinity’ lecture slams the school’s ‘wokery’ – saying ‘we’re the sort of diverse family woke-ness is supposedly defending’. Here also is my earlier mention of Knowland and posting of the online lecture that generated the controversy.
(Now I’m worried that the towers in the Eton pic are a bit phallic.)
Some questions we’ll be covering:
* How did you discover your passion for philosophy?
* Why is your view that the great battles over education have always been philosophical?
* What philosophical battles over education in the past had the greatest impact?
* What is the main battle over education today and what is its philosophical basis?
* It’s a fashionable view today that, as Nietzsche claimed, ‘there are no facts, only interpretations’. What are the philosophical roots of this idea and how influential has it been?
* How does the idea of different narratives vying for power relate to the Marxist concept of oppression?
* Why are postmodernists averse to debate? Why don’t they answer speech with more speech?
* In his book The Language of The Third Reich, Viktor Klemperer said that ‘words are like tiny doses of arsenic, swallowed unnoticed, and then after a while the toxic reaction sets in.’ Do you think we are witnessing a weaponisation of language?
* What distinguishes education from indoctrination?
* The internet has the potential to transform education perhaps even more than the printing press did. What are you hopeful about?
Directly related: My journal article, “The Postmodern Critique of Liberal Education,” published in this issue of Reason Papers.