Mr Bryant began looking at philosophy and ethics with his Year 7 pupils this week. Focusing on the thinking of philosopher J.S. Mill and Utilitarianism. In order to do this, they carried out some thought experiments involving a range of different scenarios where the children had to make a choice as to which decision was morally justifiable. Discussion points ranged from whether it was acceptable to use torture in the context of war to the ethics of driverless cars and how those that design them have difficult questions to ask when looking at potential accidents and responsibility.
The children will go on to do some thinking and writing about utilitarianism, as well as looking at the life of J.S. Mill, a 19th century philosopher who was an early advocate of woman’s rights, a campaigner against slavery in the US, and a campaigner for equal rights; very ahead of his time in the 1800’s!
