If mental health has become a reactionary concept, much like the notion of public health in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, then how can critical theory best elaborate a concern for well-being which includes both a psychic and social dimension? This article proposes the concept of existential health to grasp the salubrious zest for life that has…

This paper focusses on the forensic work put on display at Londres-38, a building in Santiago Chile designated as a National Monument, which once functioned as a torture and extermination centre under Pinochet's dictatorship. Striving to avoid conventional memorial practices, or didactic strategies that would morbidly represent the past horror,…

The Black Lives Matter campaign has led many people around the world to reassess monuments that are installed in public spaces to commemorate historical figures. These reassessments raise questions about what it means to attack the statues of the past, what the rights and wrongs of such actions are, what this teaches us and how all this is passed…

The distinguished US philosopher Elizabeth Anderson, who teaches at the University of Michigan, answers questions put to her by John White about educational aspects of her work in moral and political philosophy. She begins by describing her indebtedness to Dewey in his views on developing students' capacities for intelligent enquiry and as…

The article aims to provide a justification for the claim that optimal development and becoming an optimiser are educational ideals that parents should pursue in raising their children. Optimal development is conceptualised as enabling children to grow into flourishing persons, that is persons who have developed (and are still developing) their…

Discusses two methods of curriculum policymaking in Great Britain. In the first method, a "philosophically competent" person who serves as the central authority figure makes decisions. The second method involves a participatory decision-making process. The author argues that a committee, following national educational guidelines, will…

A rejoinder to Smithson's article, "Curriculum Policy-Making at the School Level: Two Approaches" (v15 n2 p215-28 1981). The author stresses that competent philosophical reasoning contributes to better decisions in curriculum policymaking. Such competence is necessary regardless of whether the decisions are made by administrators or…

Democracy is a weak and obscure ideal. It is often reasonable to defer to authority, give and take orders, and accept expertise. Pupils must learn to discuss as equals and to give and take orders as superiors and subordinates. Calling the former democratic and the latter authoritarian clarifies nothing. (SR)