Philosophy: Skills & Insight – The Philosopher’s Toolkit – A Thinking Skills ‘Workout’ With Dr Maria Serban From University of East Anglia

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In this Philosophy session, Dr Maria Serban, Lecturer in Philosophy in the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies at UEA, will run an interactive skills and insight workshop for students on The Philosopher’s Toolkit – A Thinking Skills ‘Workout’.

What is it really to be a good philosopher? What are the things that go into thinking well? One often hears that philosophy is about thinking clearly by seeing what follows from what, exposing sophisms, spotting fallacies, and generally providing high standards for reasoning. Do philosophers have a toolbox at their disposal, and if they do what does it contain?

In this session, by engaging the audience in interactive reasoning tasks, we will have a closer look at some argumentative moves or strategies which function like rules of thumb that can stimulate and enhance philosophical thought. These philosophical heuristics are not short-cuts to profundity, but they can make reasoning tasks easier and they can help you develop the confidence you need to become an excellent thinker.

Lecturer Profile (Please Click): Dr Maria Serban

Our events are designed so that a group of students can take part from a classroom or students and teachers can take part as individuals, either from school or from home. This means that sessions will continue irrespective of possible school closures.

As a live, participative event, this session will not be recorded but slides and other resources will be shared after the event, where available.

Suitable for: Year 12 & 13 students (and equivalent) studying, or with a possible interest in studying, Philosophy and related disciplines.

Preparation/Pre-Reading: Students may wish to consider the topic in advance, with respect to challenges they may face or questions they have. Students can also think about questions they have about studying Philosophy at university level.

The IT Setup: The event will be run on Bluejeans (similar to Zoom) and participants will be able to join using laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. If you are joining as a school group, we recommend connecting with one device and projecting on to a whiteboard. You will be able to interact with the university via a microphone and/or typed comments and questions. Full details will be sent to those who have registered (see below) prior to the event.

Booking a Place: This is free for schools and colleges. If you would like to take part in this event, please register your interest using the link to the registration form below:

Register here