By Anna Milioni

I started my PhD in Political Philosophy at King’s a year ago – roughly the same time that with a group of friends, we decided to found The Pamphlet (@the_Pamphlet_), a new philosophy magazine. The Pamphlet (https://www.the-pamphlet.com/) is an online platform for the publication of short, publicly accessible articles on philosophy which are broadly accessible to non-philosophers. Initially conceived as an online magazine, it now aspires to be much more: to contribute to the public dissemination of philosophy through the publication of articles that are topical and fun to read, but also to highlight the interactions between philosophy and other disciples, to host interviews and artistic projects with philosophical interest, to bring philosophers and non-philosophers in contact… Its main commitment, however, remains the creation or promotion of content that raises philosophical questions and is approachable to non-philosophers.

The idea was born out of a concern that is probably shared among many philosophers: while we are quite passionate about our research, and we believe that philosophy has an important role to play in society, few people read philosophy, or even know what philosophers do. As a PhD student in migration ethics at King’s, I have to contend with this in too many occasions, when people not familiar with philosophy ask me what I am doing in my life. In family reunions, family members were asking what a PhD in philosophy means. Fairly educated friends had no idea what it would mean to do philosophical research. When I explain to them my research, I keep getting the same incredulous reaction. It’s not that people don’t understand the details of my project. Most often, they simply don’t see the point in someone doing philosophical research.

Discussing this with other philosophy graduates, I realised how many of us are devastated by the thought that no one knows about all the inspiring ideas that we are studying. Therefore, with a group of friends – and philosophy graduates – we decided to take action. We thought that many people don’t read philosophy partly because of the way philosophy is written. Many academic philosophy papers are dry – maybe we could try to present their key ideas in a simpler manner, aiming not at addressing elaborate counterarguments and engaging in an advanced debate, but at demonstrating the social relevance of the work. We also decided to focus on raising questions, instead of answering them: the goal was to motivate our readers to think philosophically themselves, in a structured and organized way. Apart from me, the founders of the Pamphlet are Anita Ishaq (our Editor-in-chief), Nick Johnston, Anke Devyver, Oliver Sargeant, Casper Mullie, and Sercan Kiyak.

As our project is new but ambitious, we would love to have contributions or foster collaborations. For now, we mainly publish short articles (ideally 1000 words, max 2000 words), that go through a double-review process with an emphasis on clarity, approachability and engagement. But since we have a broader vision for our project, we would be very happy to consider publishing or sharing other kinds of content as well (we have dreams of making podcasts, videos, a forthcoming interviewing project, and much more). We also hope to expand our team with new members or Pamphlet affiliates, and we would love to hear from you if you feel that you would like to get involved in our project.

Just send me an e-mail at anna.milioni@kcl.ac.uk if you are interested in contributing in some way.

For me, the Pamphlet was a great opportunity to think and write about questions that I often thought about, but never took the time to properly explore in an organized way. The contributions I’m most proud of is a series of articles that relate operas to contemporary social and political questions (so far I’ve written about Falstaff and enjoying life, Lucia di Lammermoor and feminism, and Dr Atomic and technocracy (forthcoming), and I plan to write on Carmen and femicide, and Macbeth and power).What I find most challenging is managing to write in an accessible and engaging way: when I first tried, I realised with horror that after years of university studies, I had lost the ability to write casually! I am now in the process of regaining this skill. But the fact that everyone who contributed to The Pamphlet faced this difficulty makes me think that training ourselves to communicate our ideas to non-academic philosophers is urgently needed, if philosophy is to remain socially relevant.

You can subscribe to The Pamphlet here: https://www.the-pamphlet.com/subscribe

And you can follow The Pamphlet on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/the_Pamphlet_

on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/the__pamphlet/

and on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/The-Pamphlet-101975292168385

By Samuel Chadwick Teale

Link to video clip: https://photos.app.goo.gl/szJKpmR4YShjU5WCA

On Monday 17^th of September, I went to the National Gallery after closing, to help make two new films for The Centre for Philosophy and Art. As part of the volunteer crew team, I assisted with moving equipment with Envis (the film company) and the others, and quietly tiptoeing next to Jen (the Director) with the spotlight. It was surreal and special to visit the gallery after hours and see the paintings in a different light. Sometimes, this was literally the problem: the main ceiling lights would switch off after a minute or so, sometimes ruining an otherwise perfectly good piece of footage. So we kept the motion detectors activated by walking around, or, less congruously, a blend of amateur tai chi and contemporary dance. More profoundly, in the hall now named after Dame Myra Hess, I considered myself lucky to have experienced some paintings with these new insights, and with a unique intimacy and solitude. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the film (and officially visiting the National Gallery again)! I think I’ll stick with just a few paintings next time, as a few have really stuck with me. 

King’s College London Peace Lecture 2022

Wednesday 9 March, 6-8pm

Venue: KCL Strand Campus, Bush House 8th Floor (North), 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG

“The Humanization of Endless War and the Cause of Peace”

Speaker: Professor Samuel Moyn

Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University. https://campuspress.yale.edu/samuelmoyn/

The Peace Lectures are due to Alan Lacey, a life-long pacifist who taught philosophy at King’s College London for some fifteen years, and who left a generous bequest to fund a lecture series promoting peace. The series is organized by KCL Philosophy Department.

The lecture will be followed by a reception at Bush House, 8th Floor (South) and by the announcement of the winners of the Estella Newsome Memorial Prize essay competition (sponsored by the Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).

All are very welcome! Booking is required.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/kcl-annual-peace-lecture-prof-samuel-moyn-tickets-254545080187

Check out the latest from the Agora, “What Hitchcock’s Vertigo teaches us about love” by Noël Carroll, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center!

See this new article by Noël Carroll in @aj_wendland‘s Agora series @NewStatesman. Noël Carroll is also the and author of Philosophy and the Moving Image and Arthur Danto’s Philosophy of Art.

@aj_wendland launched and runs the philosophy column in The New Statesman called Agora, which is a space for academics to address contemporary social, political and cultural issues from a philosophical point of view.

 by Jo Wolff (@JoWolffBSG), the Alfred Landecker professor of values and public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, and governing body fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford!

See this new article by @JoWolffBSG on storytelling in the social sciences in @aj_wendland‘s Agora series @NewStatesman. Jonathan Wolff is also the author of “Ethics and Public Policy: A Philosophical Inquiry” (Routledge).

@aj_wendland launched and runs the philosophy column in The New Statesman called Agora, which is a space for academics to address contemporary social, political and cultural issues from a philosophical point of view.

Wishing everyone a safe and restful holiday season! – King’s Department of Philosophy (@kingsphilosophy)

Check out the latest from the Agora, “Why social science needs stories” by Alexander Prescott-Couch (@prescottcouch), who is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford.

See this new article by @prescottcouch on storytelling in the social sciences in @aj_wendland‘s Agora series @NewStatesman. @aj_wendland launched and runs the philosophy column in The New Statesman called Agora, which is a space for academics to address contemporary social, political and cultural issues from a philosophical point of view.

In a new 15 minute Masterclass Youtube video, Professor Bill Brewer (@mbillbrewer), Susan Stebbing Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London, asks whether we perceive the physical world directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmDqOOYs2k

Also new and exciting are two other 15 minute Masterclasses by Professor Robert Stern, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, “What are Kant’s formulations of the supreme principle of morality?” and “How does Kant identify the supreme principle of morality?“

The Royal Institute of Philosophy’s (@RIPhilo) 15-Minute Masterclass series brings you accessible overviews of 30 philosophical topics from eminent philosophers. You can watch them all here on the Royal Institute of Philosophy’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqK-cZS_wviDkzVDUAw-AeZHrmt5mq8wB

You can listen to the podcast for Ideas on CBC Radio here!: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-a-debate-over-nothing-split-western-philosophy-apart-1.6268281

‘Why are there beings at all instead of nothing? That is the question,’ said philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Check out the latest from the Agora, “Charles Mills: Reimagining Political Philosophy”, by Sophie Smith, Associate Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford.

You can also read Sophie’s (@DrSophieSmith) most recent article, “Historicising Rawls”, which elaborates on Charles Mills’s contributions to the history of 20th-century political philosophy.

King’s College London is pleased to announce that Vision Fellow in Public Philosophy, Dr. Aaron James Wendland, has been appointed to the inaugural class of Media Fellows at the Marc Sanders Foundation. The Marc Sanders Foundation is committed to using philosophy to help the world approach larger personal and social issues with the thoughtfulness, care, and rigor needed to drive understanding and change, and their Media Fellowships are designed to increase the presence of philosophically inspired discourse in the public sphere. As a Media Fellow at the Marc Sanders Foundation, Dr. Wendland will sharpen his podcasting skills and build on his current public work for The New Statesman, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and The Centre for Philosophy and Art.