Wishing all users of the peped resources a very Happy New Year! In 2018 we will be doing the following: 1….
December 19, 2017
Augustine on Original Sin
Has a fourth century monk got anything to teach us? This is the question a short 7 minute introduction to Augustine…
September 12, 2016
Issues Surrounding Sexual Ethics
As sexual ethics is likely to come up for OCR A2 this year, I want to comment on some recent breakthroughs…
May 4, 2016
Gene Editing and Morality
Gene editing already has a bewildering array of human benefits: re-creating genetic diseases in animals which help create new drugs; making…
February 2, 2016
Happy Kairos in 2016
Kairos How a young person may long for the wisdom of old age! I often wish I had known and understood…
January 1, 2016
Tyson Fury on Homosexuality
Tyson Fury on Homosexuality Tyson Fury won the WBA heavyweight title a couple of weeks ago, but what weight should we…
December 9, 2015
A Just War?
Just War? Archbishop Justin Welby argued that Syrian airstrikes fulfil Just War criteria. I beg to disagree; yet the problem may…
December 4, 2015
Ripples of Grief
One death diminishes all of us, and the tragic and senseless murders in Paris yesterday (November 13th 2015) send ripples of…
November 14, 2015
Abortion Law is Discrimatory
Since the 1967 Abortion Act women in Northern Ireland have been denied the right to an abortion. The Northern Irish MPs…
November 13, 2015
Moral Courage (+ V)
When head boy Jake Bailey wrote his speech for the end of year, he didn’t know he would be diagnosed with…
November 10, 2015
Natural Differences and Ethics
Naturalistic theories such as Natural law depend as their first premise upon the validity of deriving goodness from the way things…
October 15, 2015
Rules, Principles and Utilitariansim
Rules and principles are different. Principles are general guidelines, things we need to exercise our minds in order to apply, like…
October 8, 2015
Natural Law and Double Effect
Natural Law theory might appear on first glance to be inflexible – but before we pass over hasty judgement we need…
April 28, 2015
Absolute Evil
Last year it was relativism, and this year it could be the word ‘absolutism’ that appears in our summer AS exam…
April 24, 2015
In Praise of Kant’s Second Formula
I have a theory that if we all lived one day as a Kantian we would actually be a lot happier….
March 24, 2015
Are Moral Theories Useless?
Are moral theories useless for solving issues surrounding whatever applied ethical dilemma we face? Is there a crisis in ethics? Back in…
March 19, 2015
If You Feel You’re Cracking Up
We live in a confusing, contradictory, lonely, pressurised, complex world where it is becoming increasingly evident that the pressures, wherever they come…
March 15, 2015
Virtue Ethics
Jose Mujica, President of 3.6m Urugyans, retires today at the age of 79. He is unusual. As a former member of…
March 3, 2015
Death in Georgia
As I write this a 46 year old woman is waiting on death row in Georgia – due for execution at…
March 2, 2015
Environmental Ethics
Captain Charles Moore, a yachtsman, was sailing through the north pacific in 1997. He couldn’t believe what he saw. ”As I…
February 26, 2015
A Tragedy
When Edward Mallen’s parents opened the door to find the police on their doorstep last week, it was to hear that…
February 23, 2015
Genetic Engineering and Three Parent Babies
Genetic Engineering and Three Parent Babies On February 3rd 2014 MPs voted overwhelmingly to allow mitochondrial transfer – a genetic engineering…
February 5, 2015
Philosophical New Year’s Resolutions
Here are some New Year resolutions written from different philosophical perspectives. If you have your own version, then please add it…
December 23, 2014
Three Reasons to think about Natural Law
I confess I used to think Natural Law theory was a lot of nonsense. But then I’m not sure I had…
November 21, 2014
The Ethics of Epidemics
Periodically in human history we experience terrifying epidemics – the Black Death of the fourteenth century killed around 75 million people…
October 28, 2014
The Radicalism of Peter Singer
Peter Singer is both loved and hated in equal measure. Banned from speaking in Germany for his views on the moral…
October 9, 2014
The Conversion of JS Mill
In a recent book Henry West emphasises the similarities between Bentham and Mill and concludes that Mill ‘revised and perhaps broadened…
October 4, 2014
The Slow Strange Death of Economic Man
David Fincher, director of the film Gone Girl, complains about the ‘whole f**ing likeability thing’ affecting how audiences receive his films….
September 29, 2014
Reasons to use this site are twelve!
This week I am unashamedly advocating why you should use PI for your studies to help you get an A grade…
September 22, 2014
Rules or Principles?
In 1984 Margaret Thatcher came up with a political masterstroke: give council house tenants the right to buy their own homes…
September 19, 2014
2014 WINNING Essay:
Is existentialism a beneficial concept for society? Susie Triffitt, Woldingham School Abstract: Existentialism is a complex theory that is addressed…
September 10, 2014
COMPETITION RESULTS 2014
Ian Thackrah, chair of judges, writes: I am pleased to announce the winners of the first Philosophical Investigations Journal Competition, 2014….
September 9, 2014
Guidelines: a new section
Guidelines are here to help you! I have created a new section on the site called ‘guidelines’. The idea here is,…
September 8, 2014
Moral Absolutes
Moral absolutes I was intrigued at two articles in today’s newspaper which I think are ethically linked. One discussed how wealthy…
August 26, 2014
Just War in Iraq
Just War in a Moral Maze Pope Francis has endorsed the idea of just war in the recent upsurge in violence…
August 20, 2014
Female Genital Mutilation
Sexual Ethics and FGM I have a theory that the most important ethical issues facing the world today are the ones…
July 3, 2014
Andy Coulson and Business Ethics
Andy Coulson and the Ethics of Business However high you are, the law is above you, wrote Dr Thomas Fuller in…
June 27, 2014
Last minute A2 Applied
Last minute advice A2 Applied Ethics I would strongly advise students to pre-prepare a position on the key syllabus areas –…
June 13, 2014
Last minute advice A2
LAST MINUTE TIPS – A2 ETHICS At A2 we encounter wide topic areas which make the idea of predicting an exact…
June 11, 2014
COMPETITION ENTRY FORM
Philosophical Investigations Competition Entry Form 2014 Family Name Forename(s) Address Telephone Email address School / College Postal…
May 12, 2014
Extremely Last Minute Tips
How to maximise marks on moral theory questions Following a request from a student, I have produced some guidelines of points…
May 11, 2014
2014 possible exam questions
AS and A2 level possible OCR questions 2014 Here are some thoughts about the exam questions/areas that might come up this…
April 30, 2014
AS Exam Advice
Exam advice for AS students With around two weeks to go here’s my advice for AS students. First of all, don’t…
April 30, 2014
Euthanasia muddle
The Moral Muddle of Euthanasia Euthanasia in the UK is in a moral and practical muddle. In this blog I want…
January 23, 2014
The virtue of fortitude
Fortitude The Greeks believed there were four cardinal virtues: Fortitude, Wisdom, Temperance and Justice. Here we consider fortitude – which is…
January 15, 2014
A Magical Christmas
A Magical Christmas Sometime during the reign of Herod the Great, probably around 4 AD, a baby who became known as…
December 22, 2013
Science and Religion
Science and Religion I have just returned from a brilliant day conference looking at Science and Religion which is by common…
December 7, 2013
Ontological argument and Handel
Ontological arguments and Handel's Messiah One of the great criticisms of ontological arguments is that they generally fail to demonstrate the…
December 2, 2013
An amazing day!
Don't miss this chance!
November 24, 2013
Utilitarian failure
Where utilitarian ethics fails Utilitarianism, based as it is on maximising happiness for the greatest number of people, fails in a…
November 11, 2013
Life After Death
Life After Death? by Matthew Livermore The claim that there can be no disembodied existence after death is based on a monist…
November 11, 2013
Language and context
Is Religious Language always contextual? The claim of a language game theorist is that the meaning of a phrase is found…
November 5, 2013
Religious Experience
Can religious experiences be valid? With normal experience, we will be more certain of something if many people can all verify…
October 28, 2013
Revisting Kant
Time to give Kant a proper hearing Kant has fallen out of fashion particularly with young people because they often agree…
October 17, 2013
Absolute Relativism?
Relative Absolutist or an Absolute Relativist? The Westgate terrorist attack left the world reeling. The death of innocents: children and civilians…
October 11, 2013
Privacy
Privacy: are we fighting a losing battle? As a child I had a choice. Tell my friend my secret or keep…
October 5, 2013
Stinking Thinking
Stinking Thinking Are you feeling depressed? Youa re not alone: fifty million prescriptions were written in the UK last year for…
September 30, 2013
Happiness
Happiness and Success Shawn Achor’s recent book ‘Before Happiness’ argues the ‘success first, happiness second’ formula is out dated and goes…
September 25, 2013
What do women want?
What do women want? Cosmetics giant Lancome has recently completed months of research with a variety of focus groups, sociologists, psychologists,…
September 16, 2013
Aristotle Rebecca
From Diana Nyad to One Direction (via Aristotle) At the start of the academic year it is probably a good time…
September 9, 2013
Thinking Philosophically
Thinking philosophically Students every year report some disappointments with their grades (as well as some excellent results). Part of the problem…
September 5, 2013
Issues: SURROUNDING CONTRACEPTION
Issues surrounding Contraception What are the ethical issues surrounding contraception? Ethical issues tend to fall into three categories: those concerning consequences…
May 20, 2013
Predictions 2013
I am very grateful to Laura Middleton of St Leonard's for sending me a list of predicted questions for this coming…
May 9, 2013
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Ethics What are the issues surrounding environmental ethics? This is the second blog leading up to the A level exam…
May 7, 2013
Genetic Engineering
Genetic Engineering In a twice weekly blog I give some advice on some A level issues very likely to be in…
May 1, 2013
Predicting exam questions
Predicting Exam Questions Every year I have a bit of fun trying to predict this year’s questions for the OCR exam…
April 22, 2013
Exams are getting nearer!
Exams are getting nearer! No-one likes exams (well if they do, I haven’t met them yet!). I used to get really…
April 18, 2013
Miracles
Can we believe in miracles? The empiricist David Hume famously defined miracles as “a violation of a law of nature by…
April 5, 2013
In Praise of Play
In Praise of Play The ability and desire to play seems to be an inbuilt part of human (as well as…
March 19, 2013
Pope Francis
In Praise of Pope Francis The simplicity of God implies that the essential nature of God (his essence) is one and…
March 16, 2013
Designer babies
Designer babies: Professor Julian Savelescu “Fancy a child who’s likely to be altruistic? Then look for a version of the COMT…
March 13, 2013
Ethical issues surrounding IVF
IVF Treatments are less available than you think The Slades are an unusual family. Their daughter Beatrix, born last year, has…
March 6, 2013
Abortion trends
Recent trends in Abortion and IVF treatments Recent trends in both abortion and IVF treatments indicate important changes in social attitudes…
February 27, 2013
Utilitarianism and democracy
Democracy and utilitarian ethics face the same two problems The argument of this blog is that democracy is failing us in…
February 20, 2013
St Valentine’s Day
The Meaning of Love on Valentine's Day If there was one issue I would place top of my discussion topics (and…
February 13, 2013
A culture of hell
A Culture of Hell Every human group has what we can call a culture. This can be defined as the values…
February 7, 2013
How to Get an A grade
How do I get an A grade? Is there really a secret to getting an A grade that only the…
January 22, 2013
CHRISTMAS WITHOUT GOD
Christmas without God Recent census figures show the numbers identifying themselves with Christianity are falling fast in the UK (irrespective of…
December 21, 2012
Why utilitarian ethics doesn’t really work
The Problem with Utilitarianism In the tragedy of Jacintha Saldanha we find a living example of why utilitarian ethics can never…
December 12, 2012
LEVENSON, truth and justice
What is Truth? Leveson, Elkington and the disinformation revolution Lord Leveson's report has attracted criticism from many quarters. The victims of…
December 3, 2012
COMPETITION WINNER Philippa Downes
Philippa Downes won the November competition with this clear explanation of how, among other things, the idea of gay marriage changes…
November 26, 2012
Reconstructing Kant
Reconstructing Kant Even an eight year old child understands what Kant is on about – so Kant believes. Common sense intuition…
November 25, 2012
The community grows!
Help! "Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even…
November 17, 2012
Perpetual Peace
“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:4 The flowers left thick…
November 11, 2012
Is Gay Marriage Wrong?
“A calm mind always wins” Novak Djokovic Is gay marriage morally wrong? The new Archbishop of Canterbury elect, Justin Welby, is…
November 8, 2012
Virtue Ethics and Untouchable
Virtue Ethics and the film Untouchable “The soul never thinks without a picture”, Aristotle. Films are great source of ethcial examples…
October 30, 2012
Jimmy Savile and the case against Kant
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom". Aristotle Jimmy Savile and the case against Kant Last week I argued that we…
October 23, 2012
Jimmy Savile and Kant
Jimmy Savile and Kant Deontological ethics seeks to establish clear obligations or duties based on the idea that principles or rules…
October 16, 2012
April Jones’ murder
April Jones' murder Julie Arliss is our guest blogger this week. Her Philosophy and Ethics conferences will be starting in November…
October 9, 2012
Happiness
Happiness “Last year I moved into my new house. My album went to number 1, and still I was miserable. …
October 7, 2012
Absolutism needs a rethink
In a classroom the other day I put it to the vote. Are you a relativist or an absolutist? Almost everyone…
September 29, 2012
Relativism and absolutism
The riots this week in Libya and other Arab countries in protest against a film The Innocence of Islam illustrate tragically…
September 14, 2012
Morality of the `Olympics
Yes, it’s true – having just spent four days at the Olympics and a day at the paralympics it really was…
September 4, 2012
Relativism and reason
Human values of right and wrong have to come from somewhere – and the choices really boil down to two –…
August 7, 2012
LIBOR rates and bankers’ honesty
Every day sixteen major UK banks submit their best guess of the rate of interest they are expecting other banks to…
July 16, 2012
Abortion trends
Recent abortion statistics show sharp rises and falls in different age groups, demonstrating how morality interacts with culture. The largest rise…
June 11, 2012
A2 Business ethics questions
Business ethics is highly likely to come up this year – so what sort of questions might they ask? By the…
May 23, 2012
A2 questions this May
Here’s my view on what might come up this May and how to approach your A2 revision. The first thing you…
May 4, 2012
STEP 5: Listen to the examiner
Students following this blog will be aware that this is the fifth step of five steps to an A grade. I…
April 22, 2012
STEP 4 Do a question analysis by theme
In this fourth step I analyse the nuances of a theme as revealed by the kind of questions the examiner asks….
April 11, 2012
Do an exam question analysis
These five steps to securing an A grade are discussed in greater detail in my revision guides. These are now available…
April 2, 2012
STEP 2 Scaffolding
Every moral theory has a starting point and an end point. The bones of the argument I am going to call…
March 27, 2012
STEP 1: Five steps to A grades
These steps are outlined in greater detail in the AS and A2 revision guides (above). STEP 1: the DARM approach. DARM…
March 17, 2012
Gay marriage?
Cardinal Keith O’Brien argued recently that gay marriage violated Article 16 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights which states: “men…
March 14, 2012
Sexual Bill of Rights
What are the issues involved with sexual ethics? This question lies at the heart of the OCR applied syllabus. I recently…
March 7, 2012
Sexual ethics and the White House intern
At this time of the A2 course our study turns to sexual ethics, pre-marital sex and adultery being two of the…
February 19, 2012
The top five regrets of the dying
So many of us live the way others expect us to, or force our own unrealistic expectations to dictate our lives. …
February 12, 2012
Environmental ethics
Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac was first published in 1948 as a witness to what he saw as the anthropocentrism (human…
January 31, 2012
Some issues in Business Ethics
In three blogs leading into half term I want to suggest some ways of unpacking three applied issues at OCR A2….
January 21, 2012
Revision Guide available now
It’s the AS retake season again. Don’t worry help is at hand as a Revision Guide is available as a book (hard…
December 9, 2011
In praise of virtue
“It is no longer profitable to do moral philosophy”. So wrote Elisabeth Anscombe in 1958.
November 6, 2011
Natural Law
Natural is an ambiguous word: the state of nature, red in tooth and claw, can seem, in the words of…
October 11, 2011
What is meant by “relativism”?
Relativism is the first topic on the OCR syllabus. Truth is, it’s one of the hardest to pin down.
September 22, 2011
OMG not another term! Some phronesis needed…
We all, students and teachers alike, have feelings of misgiving at the start of a new academic year – one colleague…
September 10, 2011
Aristotle, Mill and our present times
In the clamour and din following the recent riots we are hearing wildly conflicting views on what should be the appropriate…
August 19, 2011
The ethics of riots
Can the violence and looting in Tottenham ever be justified?
August 8, 2011
Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse should not have died. Write your poem and send it to me poet@talktalk.net – if I get enough, I’ll…
July 24, 2011
The scandal of the News of the World
The recent revelations about the relations between Police, media, and politicians raise complex ethical questions. I don’t know what you feel…
July 22, 2011
Environmental ethics: a new idea of goodness?
Is there anything different about environmental ethics which is not included in the ethical theories we have studied? The answer is…
June 9, 2011
Preference utilitarianism
Is Singer’s preference utilitarianism nonsense parading as philosophy?
June 1, 2011
Sanctity of life and how it’s derived
This key concept can be derived three ways from our syllabus.
May 25, 2011
Final thoughts – important!
Here are some final thoughts with a few days to go…
May 22, 2011
Can we measure happiness?
A central difficulty of utilitarian ethics is that we need to measure happiness in order to make some calculation about maximising…
March 28, 2011
Is Richard Dawkins a natural law theorist?
It is one of the paradoxes of the current atheism that its leading proponent, Richard Dawkins, argues for a kind of…
March 22, 2011
Environmental ethics of nuclear meltdown
The nuclear crisis in the Japanese power plant at Fukushima raises profound environmental ethical questions about risk and how we handle…
March 16, 2011
Does Gaia make sense?
Can we reverse the illness we’ve inflicted on Gaia?
March 10, 2011
Saviour siblings – are they ethical?
Jason and Lesley Gregory has baby Michael to save their daughter Harriet. But are saviour siblings ethical?
March 3, 2011
Is honesty always right?
Should we always tell the truth? Kant found himself in trouble for saying “yes” to this.
March 3, 2011
Singer’s replaceability argument and euthanasia
“When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with the prospects of a happy…
February 18, 2011
Homosexual rights
The recent case of a gay couple turned away by traditionalist Christians illustrates well how values are clashing in our pluralist…
February 2, 2011
Obama’s call to virtue
When President Obama stood up to deliver his address to the grieving people of America, he clearly expounded Aristotle’s virtue ethics…
January 20, 2011
The nature of evil
The senseless murder of a young woman in Bristol over Christmas raises important questions about the nature of evil. As morality…
January 6, 2011
The murder of Jo Yeates
The murder of Jo Yeates instilled a feeling of horror and genuine sympathy and concern for her family and friends. But…
January 4, 2011
Does Jesus exist?
I ask this question in the present tense, because the Christian claim is not just that Jesus was alive once in…
December 24, 2010
Julian Assange
The Wikileaks revelations and the saga of Julian Assange, its founder and editor, raise important questions about the morality of disobedience….
December 15, 2010
Ethics of Chilean Miners
When the thirty-three trapped Chilean miners were entombed in a dark cave with their futures uncertain, they were playing out a…
October 14, 2010
Entertaining strangers
How we think about and relate to strangers is one of the keys to an ethical viewpoint.
August 11, 2010
The right to a child
Do we have a right to a child? Here are some utilitarian reflections.
July 24, 2010
Virtue ethics and globalisation
How does virtue ethics apply to ethical issues raised by globalisation? Business ethics suggests there are a number of moral problems…
May 27, 2010
Does Morality need God?
Does morality need God? The classic dilemma is expressed by Socrates in Plato’s Euthyphro. Is something good because God commands it,…
December 21, 2009
Weakness of Will
The recent allegations against Tiger Woods drew a response from his website: “I have not lived up to my values”.
December 12, 2009
Is torture justified?
Can we ever justify torturing terror suspects in order to protect the innocent? How can a country with such strong democratic…
April 18, 2009
Natural Law and contraception
Pope Benedict visited Cameroon in March 2009 and declared: “condom use aggravates the AIDS problem”.
April 1, 2009
A Just War?
Can there be such a thing as morality in war? Those who have argued for an idea of a just war…
January 13, 2009
Is integrity the key virtue?
A student of mine once said to me “I will do almost anything to get along”. Anything? Would you lie to…
November 16, 2008
The Financial Crisis
“Politics”, wrote Aristotle, “is morality by another name”.Recent events with the collapse of share prices and the near-collapse of major UK…
November 4, 2008
Is slavery wrong?
Hadijatou Mani was sold into slavery at the age of 12 in the Niger, one of an estimated 40,000 people in…
October 28, 2008
Euthanasia and the case of Daniel James
The case of Daniel James raises important issues concerning the right to die. What are the ethical principles we might invoke…
