The Examined Year: 2016
Jan 08, 2017Our annus horribilis is over. But what ideas and events took shape in 2016 that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways?
Teaching Philosophy: The Answer to Automation?
11 January 2017
In our annual year-in-review show, John and Ken were joined by political theorist Margaret Levi to discuss what the future looks like for workers when technology and automation are putting so many out of work. The particular technology discussed on The Examined Year 2016 was driverless vehicles, as there were some major advances (and some setbacks) in that area last year. But that is just part of a bigger trend in automation that is threatening jobs in many sectors.
In The Guardian this week, teaching philosophy to children was suggested as the way to prepare future workers for this new reality. The suggestion originally comes from Michael D. Higgins, the president of Ireland (my homeland!).
As The Guardian reports, Higgins said that “The teaching of philosophy, is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal to empower children into acting as free and responsible subjects in an ever more complex, interconnected, and uncertain world.” Teaching philosophy in the classrom, he said, offers a “path to a humanistic and vibrant democratic culture”.
The opinion piece, "Philosophy can teach children what Google can’t" ends with the proviso that philosophy is not going to bring back jobs lost to automation.
"But it can build immunity against careless judgments, and unentitled certitude. Philosophy in our classrooms would better equip us all to perceive and to challenge the conventional wisdoms of our age."
What do you think? Do we need philosophy now more than ever?
Read the full article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/philosophy-teach-c...
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Related Shows
The Examined Year: 2016
Jan 08, 2017Our annus horribilis is over. But what ideas and events took shape in 2016 that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways?
Blog Archive
Why do some people have a strange desire to do weird things for no (good) reason? There's something fascinating about kids who eat laundry soap as part of a “challenge,” or people who deliberately... Read more
Making a better world would be a great thing—but do we need philosophers to help us do that? Famously (or infamously), not all philosophers have been such great people. So are they the folks we... Read more
In her time—the 4th century CE—Hypatia was one of the most famous philosophers in Alexandria, and indeed in the ancient world. She studied and taught mathematics,... Read more
Mexican philosophy is full of fascinating ideas, from Mexica ("Aztec") and Mayan thought to Sor Juana’s feminism and Emilio Uranga’s existentialism... Read more
Your friendly neighborhood Senior Prodcuer here, once again stepping out from behind the mixing board to bring you some bonus content from this week's 17th (!) annual Summer Reading special.... Read more
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Fascism is on the rise, new infectious diseases keep cropping up, and we’re on the verge of environmental collapse: how on earth could art possibly save us? The arts are may be nice distraction,... Read more
Some say the world is full of contradictions, like “parting is such sweet sorrow.” Parting is sweet, but parting is also sad; and sweetness and sadness are opposites. But logicians would say that... Read more
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