World Philosophy Day, which takes place this Thursday, is one of the more neglected anniversaries in the calendar. Last year it fell on the same date as World Toilet Day, a synchronicity that might have insulted some philosophers but had a certain logic. As UCD lecturer Dr Áine Mahon pointed out, when launching the new […]

Teaching philosophy in schools is essential to prepare children for modern life, Sabina Higgins has said at the launch of a new organisation aimed at promoting “thinking time” in the classroom. “If we believe that all our children, the citizens of the future, should be offered the opportunity of understanding the decisions that affect their […]

Liberals and left-wing types are usually well-educated, yet, time and again, they show extraordinary ignorance about what motivates people to take one political stance over another. The idea that voters calmly and unemotionally weigh up the pros and cons of Remain versus Leave, for example, or Clinton versus Trump, is a fantasy. As the Scottish […]

Thirty years ago Desmond Fennell observed that socialist thought in Ireland was “virtually non-existent”. James Connolly “is still the chief reference source of Irish socialism, with no other Irish thinker intervening” since. That summation still holds good, as does Fennell’s conclusion that “socialist activism has been confined to the margins”. Since the foundation of the […]

Next time you bleat about your right to something think about what’s being done in your name in the Mediterranean My opinion piece published by The Irish Times today: “The conception of human rights based upon the assumed existence of a human being as such broke down at the very moment when those who professed […]

The Irish Times, OpEd, Aug 21st 2015, Joe Humphreys writes: There was once a time when popularity was viewed as suspect. “Popular culture”, for example, was what you called stuff that people liked but was generally rubbish. It was distinguished from actual culture, which people had to learn to appreciate and which could be measured […]

The Irish Times, feature, Sat Aug 15th: We’re only about 2,500 years behind the Greeks but Philosophy is finally making it on to the school curriculum. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is drafting plans for a short course in the subject to be introduced as part of the new Junior Cycle curriculum. It […]

The Irish Times, OpEd, Fri Aug 14th, Joe Humphreys writes: A hazard of this time of year is bumping into parents bragging about how many points their children got in the Leaving Cert. It’s not just distasteful, it’s ignorant because it assumes their little darlings deserved what they got. Anyone who is on nodding terms […]

Joe Humphreys          Fri Nov 22 2013            The Irish Times In a bid to push beyond “common sense”, The Irish Times explores important ideas of the past, present and future through conversations with different thinkers. The new column starts today, on foot of World Philosophy Day, and continues each Friday. TODAY’S IDEA “The unexamined life is […]