Chris Henry
Chris teaches Philosophy, Politics and Sociology on the International Foundation Programme at the University of Kent. His research is in the ethics of political resistance and the idea of truth.
Location United Kingdom
Activity
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Chris Henry replied to Eleanor King
Many thanks - I couldn’t ask for higher praise! Glad you liked the course.
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At the risk of being pedantic, can we really be sure that there is an original meaning of a fable that is thousands of years old? In foregrounding this example I certainly did not mean to tread on the toes of traditional folklore, rather quite the opposite: to demonstrate that there is a lot to learn from a wide range of different sources, most of which are...
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As a way of understanding contemporary social contract theory, yes. Though that’s not to say it isn’t important in a number of other important ways and that it is not still studied. For example, it is very important in moral philosophy in the sense that Hobbes puts forward a model of moral egoism that is a justification for political obligation.
I wouldn’t...
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I have only included thinkers that I discuss in this course on the timeline, so inevitably I have left many important thinkers out.
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Machiavelli's challenge however is to re-think what we mean by 'good'. One way of thinking about 'good' is to think of things that might be synonymous with goodness, like 'niceness,' and do nice things. So maybe implement a social welfare system or protect borders from external threats (of course our understanding of what might be 'nice' varies between...
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Chris Henry replied to TERRY HAW
I might get carried away with long words and sentences sometimes - my apologies!
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Two reasons: first and foremost is simply that we don't cover Hobbes in the course. The timeline was produced to contextualise and situation the thinkers covered in the course both in time and with respect to each other.
Secondly, Hobbes is becoming less and less influential in the study of politics, and for good reason. Social contract theory is...
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Chris Henry replied to Sally Banks
Without a doubt, the individuals participating in the models will affect the success/lack thereof to a certain extent, however can we not assess the underlying principles themselves in order to be able to judge which option would be better at all?
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Chris Henry replied to Sally Banks
Thanks for letting me know, Sally. Apologies: I have let FutureLearn know and hopefully it will be up soon. In the meantime, you can search for it on YouTube under the title, 'Tim Wise: On White Privilege'.
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Chris Henry replied to Quanchai Kerddaen
Many thanks, Quanchai! I'm not sure any student has said that I'm amusing before, so I'll take that whilst I can. It's an honour that another lecturer would take the course, and I hope it's in some way helpful to your future work. And I wouldn't worry about your mistakes as, from what it seems so far, your programme is spot on!
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Chris Henry replied to Andreas Manthey
Thanks! Glad to hear it.
