MASTER OF
ARTS (PHILOSOPHY)
JONNO WHITEHOUSE Assistant Head of English The Irish playwright Brian Friel wrote “confusion is not an ignoble state” and this sentiment has been at the heart of my decision to undertake a Masters of Arts, majoring in Philosophy. The greatest reward of the course is its tendency to undermine the certainties I previously brought to my understanding of the world. It has forced me to reconsider my assumptions around the existence of free will; the tension between happiness and morality; even the very actuality of the material world. Most of the course essays require students to adopt a perspective and then seek to undermine it through counter-arguments. The result is that I usually begin an essay feeling confident in my perception of self and the world, only to resign myself to confusion and uncertainty by the conclusion. It’s an exciting process and one that I have tried to engender within the classroom. In fact, I’ve been thrilled to bring much of what I’ve learned to my teaching, especially with my senior classes. It’s had profound implications for our understanding of texts such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and I have thoroughly enjoyed prompting my Year 12 English Advanced class to consider how the text interrogates the tension between reason, free will and God’s providence. My Year 11 Extension English class enjoyed debates around Kant’s theories of morality and applied this to Thomas More’s Utopia in a fascinating manner, asking ‘Can an individual’s happiness ever be sacrificed for the good of a community?’ Even my Year 7 class took responsibility for conjuring a ‘philosophical question of the day’. In all, it has been a profoundly rewarding experience to challenge myself through this new learning experience and I’m excited to continue sharing it with the students of Wenona.
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UPON REFLECTION | ISSUE 2 ENGAGE & GROW