APT Conference 2025 – June 27th
St Dominic’s Sixth Form College, Harrow, London
Opening Talk: 9.30 – 10.00
Clare Carlisle
Professor Carlisle is the author of eight books, including philosophical biographies of Søren Kierkegaard and George Eliot, and the editor of George Eliot’s translation of Spinoza’s Ethics. In 2024 she gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews. She is currently President of the British Society for Philosophy of Religion
TBA
Clare Carlisle
Session 1: 10.15 – 11.00
Mind and Body
Stephen Law
TBA
Gerald Jones
Philosophy as ‘Powerful Knowledge’
Jon Donnelly
Stephen Law
Stephen edits Think magazine, which publishes highly accessible and engaging writing by philosophers who value clear thinking and writing. Stephen lectures at Oxford and researches in philosophy of mind, language, metaphysics, and in philosophy or religion.
Gerald Jones
Gerald Jones is a London-based philosopher, educator and textbook author.
Jon Donnelly
Wallington High School for Girls
Tea and Coffee
Session 2: 11.30-12.15
The Funnel of Righteousness
Peter Worley
We enjoy being right. There are many ways to delight in this pleasure, some more noble than others. We might feel good when we’ve made a good argument, drawing on good evidence, cogently structured. Or we might only care about others believing us, no matter how that’s achieved. But there are few who derive no pleasure at all from being right, or being thought to be right. Indeed, the sense of being right really matters to us. You had an argument with a friend or family member and it has been playing through your mind ever since: Were you right to have said that? Did they understand the points you were making? Or you may feel that you were seen as wrong in a board meeting because of some group-think rather than because you hadn’t made a good case. And so on.
Here I’ll identify different aspects of being right. This is designed more as a life-guide than a piece of theoretical philosophy. It’s to help us assess what’s going on next time we relax into a sense of self-righteousness. Are we right to? When, if ever, is it right to feel righteous?
Philosophy in Prisons
Mary McCabe
Philosophy in Prison is a charity set up in 2018 to promote philosophical education in prisons and to explore the practical and philosophical principles that this involves.
Those in custody come from varying educational backgrounds. Some may have low literacy skills. Some may be disillusioned by education. Some may speak English as a second or even a third language.
We use philosophical conversation to engage anyone who is interested, whatever their educational background.
Using Deduction as a Teaching Tool
Hugh Burling
When teaching undergraduates, we routinely use semi-formal deductive arguments to charitably re-present lines of reasoning in historical (and contemporary) texts, and make the dialectic surrounding that reasoning more accessible and structured. Yet at secondary level in the UK, textbooks only very rarely make use of this tool; and some A-level resources and even curricula reinforce questionable assumptions about the nature and function of deductive reasoning which present unnecessary hindrances to students’ understanding and engagement. What are the advantages of using semi-formal deductive arguments in the classroom? What challenges might deter us? How can we address this? This talk will answer this case study using a two-year ‘natural’ experiment of introducing formal deductive reasoning as a teaching tool in Key Stage 3, and offer practical strategies for training students to be able to follow, analyse, and construct their own semi-formal deductions when grappling with historical theories and arguments at any secondary level.
Peter Worley
Peter Worley
Philosopher, educator, author
Founder The Philosophy Foundation
Website: https://peterworley.uk
E-mail: peter@peterworley.uk
X: peter@the_if_man
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterworleyuk/
Mary Margret McCabe
Professor Mary Margaret McCabe (‘MM’) works on ancient philosophy, ethics and epistemology, and on the philosophy of medicine. She is the author of Plato on Punishment (1981), Plato’s Individuals (1994), Plato and his Predecessors: The Dramatisation of Reason (2000) and Platonic Conversations (2015); her Plato’s Euthydemus is in preparation for publication in 2024, and her Sather Lectures, Seeing and Saying, for publication in 2025. MM is a co-founder and the Chair of Trustees of the charity Philosophy in Prison, which provides and supports philosophical discussion for prisoners in the UK.
Etham College
Hugh Burling
Lunch
AGM
Session 3: 13.45-14.30
TBC
Jeremy Hayward
I Didn’t Know Philosophers Did That!
Showkat Ali
Inspiring state school students to take up Philosophy.
Common Misconceptions in The Philosophy A level
Patricia Copeland and Daniel Soars
Jeremy Hayward
Jeremy Hayward is a former philosophy teacher teacher in schools and for the past 20 years have been a lecturer specialising in the fields of citizenship education and the teaching of controversial issues at the Institute of Education, UCL. He is also the author and co-author of a range of widely used textbooks, resources and guidance for schools in the areas of philosophy and citizenship.
Showkat Ali
Showkat Ali runs the I Didn’t know Philosophers Did That event, introducing philosophy students to early career research in philosophy. He is a Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Assistant at UCL, whose specialties are Ethics and Political Philosophy.
Patricia Copeland & Alexis Philippou
Carshalton High School for Girls & Wallington County Grammar School
Session 4: 14.45-15.30
Trolleys, Bats and Zombies: Philosophical Thought Experiments
David Edmonds
David Edmonds
David Edmonds is Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Institute and a former BBC journalist. He is the author/editor of many books which together have been translated into 28 languages – including Wittgenstein’s Poker, Parfit, and Would You Kill The Fat Man? Death In A Shallow Pond, about philanthropy, appears in October. David co-hosts Philosophy Bites (50 million downloads).
16.00 – onwards
Meal and Drink
Come and join us at the Castle Pub down the road from the college for drinks and a meal.
Travel Recommendations
Car: There is no onsite parking at St Dominic’s or in the immediate area. We recommend parking at the station carpark at Harrow on the Hill and coming up from there. Either a 20 minute, picturesque but steep walk or the H17 and 258 from the adjoining bus station.
Rail – The nearest station is Harrow on the Hill – on Metropolitan Line and Rail network. From here it is a 20 Min walk or you can catch the H17 or 258 from Harrow on the Hill bus station adjoining the railway station
2025 Conference Tickets
Benefits
- 2025 Conference Admisson
- Includes 1 year’s membership of the APT
- Collaborative and social events
- Support APT’s work to expand the place of philosophy in UK schools and colleges
£60
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