Philosophy Thoughts as and when

In academia, there's what some male Professors call 'camps', other male researchers term 'factions'. These may be a group of people who adhere to a particular academic, or it may be an individual who adheres to one particular academic because that person can connect with that academic as a person and can identify with their Philosophy and so wish to advocate their philosophy as well as develop themselves along their lines.  I am, and always have only been, since early 2010, an academic adherent of Professor Susan James, her Philosophy, her specialisations, her interests, her particular outlook, her personality, all suit me extremely well. See my original emails to Professor Susan James below 👇 which show I already wanted to be, and had become, her adherent very soon after she started lecturing to me on my compulsory History of Philosophy 1st year module (February 2010) and by March 2nd 2010 I had demonstrated this in writing: And here's how she replied: After I...

Further to my previous post: 8 years ago today, to the date, I posted this 👇 regarding my undergraduate dissertation (BA (Hons) Philosophy). So why do I need to keep repeating myself?    

It is now four years to the date that I first blogged about the totally disgraceful way my BA dissertation title and research area submission was completely unprofessionally handled. So I had assumed that there was no longer any confusion as to how this administrative disaster occurred and unfairly impacted on my education and undergraduate research. A student is not meant to be forced to suffer discrimination, bullying, disempowerment and being deprived of viable educational opportunities, while simply submitting their own dissertation title and research area of interest on time. No matter how you look at it, there are no excuses. It breeches just about everything you could attempt to breech during the supervisor allocation process.  However, it has come to my attention that philosophers are still unable to grasp the basics of exactly just how out of line, rule breaking and frankly abusive the rejection of my chosen dissertation and supervisor misallocation was. 'What the devil...

Further to my previous post on this blog 'Of Public Interest: How Universities can Abuse the Post-Grad Application System', I would like to raise awareness of just how many details, including very simple tasks, can be made to go wrong during the postgraduate application process. I would also like to show the level and severity of how an applicant can be deliberately misled, misinformed and denied key information about vital stages of the application system, in ways which aim to disempower them, manipulate them, be totally disrespectful towards them and abuse their human rights and data. And all the applicant receives as an answer is a pile of lies and excuses that don't hold water.  After this 2016-17 MRes application saga: Don't even think of asking me to file any form of complaint/challenge, or application or re-application there.  Don't ask me to show any interest in this university I applied to, be it their Open Days or their Events (academic or otherwise).  And...

Yesterday, I came across an email I was sent way back in July 2016 by the admin woman that non-Dutch prospective students had to deal with when applying to the (2 year full time, first year only taught, second year research) MRes Philosophy MA (2016-18).  I was applying as an EU prospective student because the UK was still part of the EU and, at the time of applying, had no yet voted to leave the EU. So much for the notion that part of the advantage of being an EU Member State is to access opportunities to live and study across Europe, all under their wonderful respect for and observance of people's European Human Rights. And where could be more central to the principles of the EU bloc than the Netherlands, home to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the European Patent Office (EPO).  I have decided to share it to raise awareness of something that is very much in the public interest, yet the topic is rarely ever discussed or brought to light in mainstream media: we ma...

The hidden consequences of decriminalising drugs  There are many consequences to decriminalising drugs that Branson hasn't addressed in this Facebook video message, available  here . He hasn't taken on board the hidden and complex drug problems taking place amongst students at universities across the country that won't be solved through a relaxation of law and regulations.  Here's  an excellent YouTube video interviewing an investigative journalist on the use and abuse of ketamine at universities. I'll be drawing on his journalistic research in this blog post. 1) Surely decriminalising being caught with drugs means you're normalising taking drugs which we know cause mental and physical health issues, temporary or permanent. This normalisation will create more peer pressure to participate in drug taking and it can take place more openly and prolifically because it's not unlawful and more socially acceptable. That makes life harder for those who don't wish...