Sir, – As Aristotle once said, back in the murky depths of time when Wi-Fi didn’t exist, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”. Can we not take this sage advice? My generation is too often portrayed as social media-mad, ignorant, and not predicted to add any worth to society other than a selfie with a thousand-plus “likes”. However, how are we expected to express thoughts of profundity and chase after the true essence of life if we aren’t offered a taster as how exactly to go about this in secondary school? Exposure to philosophy from first year onwards would promote a freer exploration of thought in society’s upcoming ranks.
Plato defined the process of thinking as “The talking of the soul with itself”; the only thing stopping this is ourselves, or perhaps the State Examinations Commission. – Yours, etc,
SUZANNE CONNELL,
Carrickmines, Dublin 18.
Sir, – Patricia O'Riordan ((November 1st) wants to spare schoolchildren "the ramblings of the bearded cranks of yesteryear", but if she had studied philosophy at school she would not have committed such a blatant ad hominem argument.
The French philosopher Descartes – usually pictured with a moustache and a soul patch under his lower lip but no beard – argued that childhood is where prejudices are born, which only philosophy can overcome. Let me also quote a French philosopher who was no crank but did have a beard. Montaigne in his essay On Education wrote: "Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it?" Why not, indeed. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN McCLINTON,
Lisburn.