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ONLY PHILOSOPHERS SHOULD HOLD POLITICAL POWER 

The Greek word Dianoia literally means “thoroughly, from side to side” or to move from one side of an issue to the other, reaching “balanced” conclusions. Another useful phrase to describe Dianoia is “full-orbed reasoning”.  All this sound like exactly what we see in...

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Death and Happiness

Quite often the stimulus material for a Philosothon concerns death. Many of our students have experienced the trauma of death in their close relationships and it is right that we should be sensitive to this and approach the subject in a way that does not cause...

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THE WAY OF HAPPINESS 

The ancient philosophers always tried to live out their philosophy. Long before Jesus told the parable of the wise man who built his house upon the rock to illustrate the importance of acting on wise words, teachers were insisting on good ethical living as a key to...

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WISE JUDGEMENT 

Before I went to university and then later trained to be a priest, I was conscripted into the Police Force in the early 1980’s in darkest Apartheid South Africa. I was forced to serve for four years and, for a time, I was seconded to the criminal courts where I...

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CONNECTIONS

All of us in education are in the business of making connections. These repeated connections form a framework or network which takes on a vibrancy and vitality of its own. This occurs either in the brain as neural pathways that strengthen by repetition or between...

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What’s the point?

Aristotle used the Greek word “telos” when discussing the purpose or aim of a particular activity. The telos of being at school is to be educated, the telos of being in business is making a profit. So a wise person would aim at the telos of her living and working....

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Practical Wisdom

Practical Wisdom  In our schools, we tend to use two main tools to make the process of education run smoothly. The first is a set of rules that tells people what to do and what not to do, with people in place to monitor performance and ensure compliance. The second is...

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