On Tuesday 25th March 2014, Badminton School held its annual philosophy conference, thanks to our Religious Studies teacher, Ms Harris. It was a successful day indeed! With captivating speakers, an audience of students and teachers from different schools and well-provided refreshments, the day passed by swiftly and, most importantly, productively. I believe that each and every person enjoyed the day of sharing philosophical knowledge as much as I did.
The conference consisted of five speakers beginning with Professor Jonathan Sterne from the University of Bristol on the topic of “The HIV treatment revolution – should we test and treat everyone?”. Then, quite appropriately scheduled right before the break, was Dr Julian Baggini’s discussion on “The Virtues of the Table: To know how to eat is to know how to live”. Afterwards, we had the talk of “Why David Hume would not call himself an atheist” with Dr Simon Blackburn from the University of Cambridge and then Dr Janet Orchard from the University of Bristol talking to us about the topic “P4T: The Value of Applied Philosophy to Education”. To finish the day, Dr Nigel Warburton spoke to us about “A Little History of Philosophy”.
My favourite talk was the last talk of “A Little History of Philosophy” named after Warburton’s’ published book, which covers the history of philosophy from Socrates to Singer. I thoroughly enjoyed the progression of the talk as Dr Warburton covered some of the greatest philosophers of all time one after another and discussed their theories, analogies and arguments. The way in which Dr. Warburton explained his topic made it very easy for the audience to participate and ask a question every now and then.
In addition, being with other schools was a refreshing experience as students are given the chance to communicate with others similar to themselves who have also expressed an interest in the subject of philosophy. It is always a pleasant experience to be able to meet new people and the philosophy conference definitely offered that opportunity as I myself had the pleasure of meeting some interesting and friendly individuals.
Daniella, Year 12
