Dr Henry Taylor launches new video series bringing philosophy into the classroom

Dr Henry Taylor, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy has created a new series of videos and resources aimed at introducing young people to philosophy.

Created for the classroom, Dr Taylor has collaborated with experts, including fellow Birmingham academics, to create videos on a range of philosophical topics, ranging from ‘Are rocks conscious?’ to ‘Can robots be cultured?’. Speaking about ‘Philosophy Smash with Henry!’, he said: “The project aims to spread the word about philosophy’s breadth. Rather than going for the ‘classic’ topics and thinkers, we aim for more contemporary issues that can capture the popular imagination.”

For each topic, Henry has created a short video interview with the topic expert. The video starts with a direct answer to the philosophical question, followed by 5-10 minutes of exploratory conversation. Dr Taylor said of the videos: “The biggest challenge faced by a project of this kind is attention span. It’s just too much to ask kids to pay attention to two people talking for seven minutes.”

He continued: “We don’t have the budget for fancy animations, and so it’s hard to compete with the kind of explosive content that kids routinely watch on TikTok and Instagram. To address this, each video is chopped up into sections, with teaching activities written into the lesson plan, to slot in between the different sections of the video. Chopping the videos up in this way also means that teachers can use whichever chunks best suit them.”

One of the challenges Dr Taylor has faced in the roll-out of the project is that philosophy is not traditionally taught to his target-age group, so teachers may not know how to include his work within their curriculum. To help overcome this, each video is accompanied by a full lesson plan, handouts and other resources to help facilitate its implementation.

‘Philosophy Smash with Henry!’ was made possible through an Impact Acceleration Account Grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and it’s in partnership with SAPERE P4C, a charity that provides philosophical resources to schools, colleges and communities.