George MacDonald Ross

University of Leeds · School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science (PRHS)

FIRST AND SECOND PARAGRAPH In order to give an account of the teaching of philosophy in schools in the UK (which is in fact very limited), I need to explain how the UK educational system is organised. By the end of my brief explanation, I am sure my francophone readers will consider terms such as ‘system’ and ‘organised’ to be wholly inappropriate...

[FIRST PARAGRAPH] What makes the Higher Education Academy unique in educational development circles is its firm focus on disciplinary differences. This is why it has a network of 24 Subject Centres, each with its own distinctive perspective on helping academics to improve the quality of their students’ learning. However, disciplines differ as much...

At the AAPT International Workshop/Conference at Alverno College in 2000, I was invited to give a presentation on the recently established Philosophical and Religious Studies Centre of the Learning and Teaching Support Network. My presentation was published in AAPT News, 24/1, Spring 2001, pp.3–8. In the UK, there had never previously been a forum...

[FIRST PARAGRAPHS] This article is about the work of the UK Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies of the Higher Education Academy. In order to explain what the Academy and the Subject Centre are, I need to point out some key differences between the UK and the US higher education systems. In the UK, we do not have a distinction be...

[Introduction] In 1765, Kant issued an Advertisement for the four lecture courses he would be delivering in the winter semester of 1765/66, on Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, and Physical Geography (Kant 1905). Instead of merely outlining the course syllabuses, Kant prefaced the document with what would nowadays be called a ‘statement of teaching phil...

[Introduction] Plagiarism more common than thought in student essays’ would make a good headline. Recent research suggests that students admit to much more plagiarism and other forms of cheating than teachers generally suspect, and it is widely believed that the problem is increasing as a result of the internet. The solution is to use a range of te...

n August 2001, I wrote an information article called ‘External Pressures on Teaching’, which was published in the then PRSLTSN Journal, 1.2, Winter 2002, pp. 98–129. It is now time to update that article, and to add a number of subsequent developments. However, the original article, which explains the logic of the various QAA initiatives, is still...

[FIRST PARAGRAPHS] The primary role of the PRS-LTSN is to improve the quality of education by encouraging the sharing of good practice and innovation, and the discussion of common problems. However, there are other forces at play, which are pursuing the same end by different means. The purpose of this article is to explain what these forces are, an...

Summary: A paper, orginally presented to the 13th International Conference of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers, on the establishment of this Centre. I have been invited here to speak to you about the new Philosophical and Religious Studies Subject Centre of the Learning and Teaching Support Network, of which I am Director. This is a...

[FIRST PARAGRAPHS] In issue No. 5 (Spring 1993), there were two rather flippant remarks about the concept of subsidiarity. The Philosophy Glossary defined subsidiarity as ‘nobody agrees on what this word means’ (p.32), and John Crosthwaite described its meaning as a ‘grey area’, and ‘hand[ed] the question over to the real philosophers’ (p.25). I d...

The terms “science” and “philosophy” have undergone radical changes in meaning since the seventeenth century; it is therefore more profitable to consider the relation between metaphysics and other disciplines. This essay discusses the various ways in which Leibniz uses the term “metaphysics”, and concludes that he had two radically distinct concept...

My general theme is the extent to which philosophers and others must be taken literally when they have written about angels, or anything else which is no longer generally believed in. However, since the title may perhaps have aroused expectations of angels dancing on points of needles, I shall take as my point of departure the question of whether o...

It is well known that the heroes of the seventeenth-century scientific revolution were themselves by no means free of the occultist modes of thought from which they were supposed to be rescuing the human mind. Far less attention has been paid to occult tendencies in the philosophy of the time.1 Since there was no sharp distinction between philosoph...

I am most indebted to Dr Schaffer for adding such a wealth of scholarly detail to what was often only general and sketchy in my paper. If I have any criticism to make of his comments, it is that he is too tactful in avoiding explicit criticism of my claims. The nearest I find to straight rejection of any of my positions is in his section ‘Occultism...

The relation between Leibniz's philosophy of education and his philosophical system as a whole The direct influence of Leibniz's theory of education The indirect influence of Leibniz's philosophy on educational theory The implications of Leibniz's philosophy for education in the 21st century Leibniz and philosophical education Article I shall begin...

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