Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
There’s something about the high walls and noise of prisons that inclines inmates to think in absolutes. Inside, you’re either innocent or guilty, manly or emasculated. The in-betweens count for little. So what’s it like when prisoners do philosophy, asks Andy West? Does thinking in more open ways make it easier or harder to survive their sentence?
Andy West has taught Philosophy in a range of prisons as well as in primary schools. He is now writing a book about teaching philosophy in prisons which draws on personal experience of having relatives in prison as well as philosophical reflection and his teaching experience.
This session took place over Zoom at the Virtual Festival of the Middle Way, on 18th April 2020. The chair is Robert M. Ellis.
There’s something about the high walls and noise of prisons that inclines inmates to think in absolutes. Inside, you’re either innocent or guilty, manly or emasculated. The in-betweens count for little. So what’s it like when prisoners do philosophy, asks Andy West? Does thinking in more open ways make it easier or harder to survive their sentence?
Andy West has taught Philosophy in a range of prisons as well as in primary schools. He is now writing a book about teaching philosophy in prisons which draws on personal experience of having relatives in prison as well as philosophical reflection and his teaching experience.
This session took place over Zoom at the Virtual Festival of the Middle Way, on 18th April 2020. The chair is Robert M. Ellis.
