New Philosopher 1-5

WILL ONLINE EDUCATION KILL THE UNIVERSITY?
Are you
what you
learn?
WILL SELF JANE ROLAND MARTIN DAMON YOUNG

Education for sale Why school must change Lamingtons and Orwell
Editor
Zan Boag
Literary Editor
Antonia Case
Art Directors
Carlos Egan, Aida Novoa
Cover Design
Genís Carreras
Editor-at-large
Nigel Warburton
Deputy Editor
André Dao
Office Manager
“Philosophers from Plato to Dewey have been Steffen Westermann
keenly aware that good or bad education is Administration
primarily a matter of good or bad philosophy.” Amy Spencer, Marnie Anderson
Technology
Christina Hoff Sommers Claudio Faerman
Contributors
#12 Education
Roslyn Arnold, Matthew Beard, Oliver
Burkeman, Antonia Case, Tom Chatfield, André
Dao, Jessa Gamble, Kate Manne, Jane Roland
Martin, Will Self, Patrick Stokes, Gillian Terzis,
Nigel Warburton, Damon Young
Nobody escapes the education machine, an apparatus with the Illustrators / Artists
ambitious aim of taking unpolished individuals and shaping them Genís Carreras, Carlos Egan, Michael Leunig,
in the mould of ‘upstanding citizen’. With children spending but a Corey Mohler, Aida Novoa, Peter Strain
portion of the day under the influence of educational institutions, Photographers
the results are, thankfully, far from homogenous – the multifarious Liu Dong’ao, Brian Ferguson, Julian Germain,
moulds supply a healthy range of citizens with differing ideals and David Iliff, Xin Li, Thomas J. O’Halloran
morals, competing creeds and philosophies. Subscribe
Yet there still lurks a danger. There’s still a chance that education newphilosopher.com/subscribe
could, as Napoleon Bonaparte once hoped, “cast a whole generation Contact
in one mould”. This threat comes not from our schools, but from PO Box 136, Bangalow, 2479 Australia
another, more powerful, influencer of minds and mores across the [email protected]
globe: the media. Partners
Each day, children from Iceland to Japan learn the formal and Australasian Association of Philosophy,
informal rules of the society into which they are born. But when it American Philosophical Association, University
comes to teaching them how to live and who to be, schools are sub- of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University
ordinate to screens: each year 900 hours are spent at school, while of Western Sydney, University of Queensland,
2,500 hours are devoted to the ‘media curriculum’. Macquarie University
There are growing concerns about this unprecedented influence Distributors
on children’s minds, not least of which is: What kind of citizen is the AU/NZ: Gordon & Gotch; UK/EU: Pineapple
media teaching our children to be? Media; US/CAN: Disticor
Printers
Offset Alpine Printing (AU), Polestar (UK)
Views expressed by the authors are not those of

Zan Boag
the publisher. Reproduction in whole or in part is
Editor, New Philosopher
Editor’s letter
prohibited, copyright is reserved by the authors.

ISSN 2201-7151 Issue 12, May-July 2016
NewPhilosopher · 3
CONTENTS
3 Editor’s letter 78 Thoughts on... education

8 Contributors 80 An invitation to be disturbed ~ André Dao
10 Confucius ~ Peter Strain 84 Six philosophers
12 News from nowhere 86 Why school must change ~ Jane Roland Martin
20 We don’t need no education ~ Antonia Case 92 Dangerous learning ~ Patrick Stokes
24 Walking your talk ~ Oliver Burkeman 96 All true words fly ~ Confucius
27 Education by numbers 98 Automation complacency ~ Jessa Gamble
28 It awakes ~ Existential Comics 102 Why teach? ~ Roslyn Arnold
34 The classroom of the future ~ Tom Chatfield 104 Our library
38 Napoleon ~ Peter Strain 106 Writers’ Award X winner ~ Warren Ward
40 Classroom portraits ~ Julian Germain 109 Writers’ Award X runner-up ~ Steve McCool
52 Lamingtons and Orwell ~ Damon Young 114 We are taught by three masters ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau
56 Living philosophy 118 Documentaries
58 Will MOOCs kill the university? ~ Gillian Terzis 119 Around the web
64 Ethical dilemmas ~ Matthew Beard 120 What’s on
66 The autodidact ~ Nigel Warburton 122 Subscribe
70 Education defined 124 A quick heads-up ~ Kate Manne
72 Education! Education! Education! ~ Will Self 130 13 questions ~ Cathy Wilcox
Contents
4 · NewPhilosopher
34. MIND/BODY 72. UNIVERSITIES 24. ADVICE
The classroom of the Education! Education! Walking your talk
future Education! Oliver Burkeman
Tom Chatfield Will Self
66. LEARNING
40. PHOTOGRAPHER
The autodidact
Classroom portraits
Nigel Warburton
Julian Germain
28. EXISTENTIAL COMICS 52. FAMILY 56. LIVING PHILOSOPHY

It awakes Lamingtons and Orwell What is the meaning
Corey Mohler Damon Young of life?
Contents
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WILL ONLINE EDUCATION KILL THE UNIVERSITY?

WILL SELF JANE ROLAND MARTIN DAMON YOUNG

Views expressed by the authors are not those of

prohibited, copyright is reserved by the authors.

3 Editor’s letter 78 Thoughts on... education

28. EXISTENTIAL COMICS 52. FAMILY 56. LIVING PHILOSOPHY

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