Ben Kotzee | University of Birmingham (original) (raw)
Papers by Ben Kotzee
Routledge eBooks, Aug 31, 2022
South African Journal of Philosophy, 2001
Philosophy of Education, 2021
In his paper, "What is the Meaning of Educational Injustice" Alex Nikolaidis investigates what it... more In his paper, "What is the Meaning of Educational Injustice" Alex Nikolaidis investigates what it means to call an educational arrangement just or unjust. He outlines a number of forms of educational injustice that have been discussed in the literature; for instance: distributive, cultural, political, epistemic, formative, retributive and restorative forms of injustices pertaining to education have all been discussed in the literature. At first glance, the list is a rag bag. They comprise very different kinds of wrongs-for instance, distributive injustice is clearly a material wrong and cultural injustice a more intangible or symbolic wrong-and, in Section II, Nikolaidis draws attention to the problem created by the fact that there are so many different concepts of educational injustice: that it is hard to know which kind of injustice to act on (or act on first). One might also add that, with so many different kinds of injustice in education, it is hard to know who must act: teachers and schools, parents, educational policy makers, employers. .. who? Different groups of people are potentially to blame for different kinds of educational injustice and different groups are able or unable to correct them and, thus, what kinds of injustice one focuses on also shifts the burden for ameliorating injustice onto different people. Nikolaidis' paper is essentially an attempt to outline one essential form of educational justice that philosophers can use to evaluate whether a form of injustice is indeed "educational" and that policy makers and practitioners can use to decide which injustices to tackle most proactively.
The Oxford Handbook of Assertion
In his short article “On Bullshit” (1986, republished as a book in 2005), Harry Frankfurt diagnos... more In his short article “On Bullshit” (1986, republished as a book in 2005), Harry Frankfurt diagnoses a distinctive problem of contemporary culture: that so much of it is bullshit. Today, bullshit abounds in advertising, politics, the media, and the academy; for this, Frankfurt blames the mass media, advertising, the party political system, and some currents in academic thought (notably postmodernism). More than diagnose a widespread problem, however, in “On Bullshit” Frankfurt develops a theoretical account of the nature of bullshit. In his account, Frankfurt holds that bullshit is, like lying, a dishonest assertion; however, he makes clear how bullshitting is different from lying and holds (startlingly) that bullshit is more dishonest than lying. In this chapter I consider bullshit as a distinct perversion of assertion next to lying. I hold that understanding bullshit and lying as perversions of assertion sheds light on assertion and how it functions.
British Educational Research Journal, 2022
Philosophy of Education, 2017
While the teaching of intellectual virtue is receiving growing attention, little research exists ... more While the teaching of intellectual virtue is receiving growing attention, little research exists on how to assess the development of intellectual virtue in students. This is not without reason. Some may think that the development of intellectual virtue should not (or perhaps cannot) be assessed. Furthermore, standard forms of assessment – especially as we encounter them in the high stakes graded exams common in schools and universities – seem to encourage an instrumental rather than a virtuous orientation towards the value of knowledge. In this paper, I review the challenges that exist for teachers in assessing intellectual virtue. I review attempts that have been made to assess something like intellectual virtue in (1) research on moral development, (2) research on ‘personal epistemology’ and (3) research into critical thinking. I conclude that while it is possible to assess the development of intellectual virtue with enough precision to demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching for intellectual character, this does not imply that virtue must be graded.
The Routledge Handbook of Applied Epistemology, 2018
The Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, 2018
In this text, a numerical model using the finite element method (FEM) is developed to describe ab... more In this text, a numerical model using the finite element method (FEM) is developed to describe absorption phenomena using the Beer-Lambert law. Numerical results are compared against experimental measurements made on alpha brass, characterized by photothermal radiometry (PTR). Results from the numerical analysis are in good agreement with the measurements obtained from the radiometry tests. In this technique the material is subjected to a laser heating, producing a thermal wave that is captured with a detector by means of the amplitude and phase parameters. The analysis of the data obtained from six samples provides information about their thermal properties, such as conductivity and diffusivity, which can be correlated with structural changes in a material. Results from this research lead to the characterization of mechanical properties of metallic materials.
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2021
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, 2017
Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 2020
In this paper, I investigate two clashing perspectives regarding the good of the university: a so... more In this paper, I investigate two clashing perspectives regarding the good of the university: a socio-economic and an epistemic perspective. I position current writing on the university in the philosophy of education as being largely socio-economic and contrast this view to an earlier tradition of writing about the university that I position as mostly epistemic. Following on from this discussion, I review the university’s role in the distribution of social and epistemic goods. I hold that the university directly controls only the latter, not the former and hold that whatever socio-economic roles the university plays in society, it must do so through the distribution of knowledge in society. Next, I explore what this means for the university’s socio-economic functioning: I hold that seeing the good that the university distributes as knowledge places limits on its socio-economic functioning. Lastly, I ask what the university can do to promote epistemic justice in how it conducts teachi...
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2020
Higher Education Research & Development, 2020
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
If digital technology today makes children able to rely on external aids (pocket calculators, Goo... more If digital technology today makes children able to rely on external aids (pocket calculators, Google, etc.) in their learning, is it still necessary to teach traditional school knowledge (such as mental arithmetic, recall of facts)? In this chapter, the debate about extended cognition is approached from the perspective of education. It is asked whether a human–machine interaction constitutes good learning in an effort to distinguish between when a person truly comes to know something aided by technology and when they merely parrot or copy something from technology. The standard answer to this question is that the difference is made by how well the technology in question is integrated in one’s cognitive character. Instead, it is argued that the difference lies in one’s acquired facility with the technology in question—credit for what one comes to know using technology when one has learned to use that technology well enough.
Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 2019
Practical wisdom is a key concept in the field of virtue ethics, and it has played a significant ... more Practical wisdom is a key concept in the field of virtue ethics, and it has played a significant role in the thinking of those who make use of virtue when theorising medical practice and ethics. In this article, we examine how storytelling and practical wisdom play integral roles in the medical ethics education of junior doctors. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 46 interviews with a cohort of junior doctors to explore the role doctors feel phronesis has in their medical ethics practice and how they acquire practical wisdom through storytelling as an essential part of their medical ethics education. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, we discuss the key role storytelling about moral exemplars and role models plays in developing medical ethics education, and how telling stories about role models is considered to be one of the most useful ways to learn medical ethics. We finish by developing an argument for why practical wisdom should be an important part of medical ...
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2018
Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern yo... more Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.
Routledge eBooks, Aug 31, 2022
South African Journal of Philosophy, 2001
Philosophy of Education, 2021
In his paper, "What is the Meaning of Educational Injustice" Alex Nikolaidis investigates what it... more In his paper, "What is the Meaning of Educational Injustice" Alex Nikolaidis investigates what it means to call an educational arrangement just or unjust. He outlines a number of forms of educational injustice that have been discussed in the literature; for instance: distributive, cultural, political, epistemic, formative, retributive and restorative forms of injustices pertaining to education have all been discussed in the literature. At first glance, the list is a rag bag. They comprise very different kinds of wrongs-for instance, distributive injustice is clearly a material wrong and cultural injustice a more intangible or symbolic wrong-and, in Section II, Nikolaidis draws attention to the problem created by the fact that there are so many different concepts of educational injustice: that it is hard to know which kind of injustice to act on (or act on first). One might also add that, with so many different kinds of injustice in education, it is hard to know who must act: teachers and schools, parents, educational policy makers, employers. .. who? Different groups of people are potentially to blame for different kinds of educational injustice and different groups are able or unable to correct them and, thus, what kinds of injustice one focuses on also shifts the burden for ameliorating injustice onto different people. Nikolaidis' paper is essentially an attempt to outline one essential form of educational justice that philosophers can use to evaluate whether a form of injustice is indeed "educational" and that policy makers and practitioners can use to decide which injustices to tackle most proactively.
The Oxford Handbook of Assertion
In his short article “On Bullshit” (1986, republished as a book in 2005), Harry Frankfurt diagnos... more In his short article “On Bullshit” (1986, republished as a book in 2005), Harry Frankfurt diagnoses a distinctive problem of contemporary culture: that so much of it is bullshit. Today, bullshit abounds in advertising, politics, the media, and the academy; for this, Frankfurt blames the mass media, advertising, the party political system, and some currents in academic thought (notably postmodernism). More than diagnose a widespread problem, however, in “On Bullshit” Frankfurt develops a theoretical account of the nature of bullshit. In his account, Frankfurt holds that bullshit is, like lying, a dishonest assertion; however, he makes clear how bullshitting is different from lying and holds (startlingly) that bullshit is more dishonest than lying. In this chapter I consider bullshit as a distinct perversion of assertion next to lying. I hold that understanding bullshit and lying as perversions of assertion sheds light on assertion and how it functions.
British Educational Research Journal, 2022
Philosophy of Education, 2017
While the teaching of intellectual virtue is receiving growing attention, little research exists ... more While the teaching of intellectual virtue is receiving growing attention, little research exists on how to assess the development of intellectual virtue in students. This is not without reason. Some may think that the development of intellectual virtue should not (or perhaps cannot) be assessed. Furthermore, standard forms of assessment – especially as we encounter them in the high stakes graded exams common in schools and universities – seem to encourage an instrumental rather than a virtuous orientation towards the value of knowledge. In this paper, I review the challenges that exist for teachers in assessing intellectual virtue. I review attempts that have been made to assess something like intellectual virtue in (1) research on moral development, (2) research on ‘personal epistemology’ and (3) research into critical thinking. I conclude that while it is possible to assess the development of intellectual virtue with enough precision to demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching for intellectual character, this does not imply that virtue must be graded.
The Routledge Handbook of Applied Epistemology, 2018
The Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, 2018
In this text, a numerical model using the finite element method (FEM) is developed to describe ab... more In this text, a numerical model using the finite element method (FEM) is developed to describe absorption phenomena using the Beer-Lambert law. Numerical results are compared against experimental measurements made on alpha brass, characterized by photothermal radiometry (PTR). Results from the numerical analysis are in good agreement with the measurements obtained from the radiometry tests. In this technique the material is subjected to a laser heating, producing a thermal wave that is captured with a detector by means of the amplitude and phase parameters. The analysis of the data obtained from six samples provides information about their thermal properties, such as conductivity and diffusivity, which can be correlated with structural changes in a material. Results from this research lead to the characterization of mechanical properties of metallic materials.
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2021
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, 2017
Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 2020
In this paper, I investigate two clashing perspectives regarding the good of the university: a so... more In this paper, I investigate two clashing perspectives regarding the good of the university: a socio-economic and an epistemic perspective. I position current writing on the university in the philosophy of education as being largely socio-economic and contrast this view to an earlier tradition of writing about the university that I position as mostly epistemic. Following on from this discussion, I review the university’s role in the distribution of social and epistemic goods. I hold that the university directly controls only the latter, not the former and hold that whatever socio-economic roles the university plays in society, it must do so through the distribution of knowledge in society. Next, I explore what this means for the university’s socio-economic functioning: I hold that seeing the good that the university distributes as knowledge places limits on its socio-economic functioning. Lastly, I ask what the university can do to promote epistemic justice in how it conducts teachi...
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2020
Higher Education Research & Development, 2020
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
If digital technology today makes children able to rely on external aids (pocket calculators, Goo... more If digital technology today makes children able to rely on external aids (pocket calculators, Google, etc.) in their learning, is it still necessary to teach traditional school knowledge (such as mental arithmetic, recall of facts)? In this chapter, the debate about extended cognition is approached from the perspective of education. It is asked whether a human–machine interaction constitutes good learning in an effort to distinguish between when a person truly comes to know something aided by technology and when they merely parrot or copy something from technology. The standard answer to this question is that the difference is made by how well the technology in question is integrated in one’s cognitive character. Instead, it is argued that the difference lies in one’s acquired facility with the technology in question—credit for what one comes to know using technology when one has learned to use that technology well enough.
Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 2019
Practical wisdom is a key concept in the field of virtue ethics, and it has played a significant ... more Practical wisdom is a key concept in the field of virtue ethics, and it has played a significant role in the thinking of those who make use of virtue when theorising medical practice and ethics. In this article, we examine how storytelling and practical wisdom play integral roles in the medical ethics education of junior doctors. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 46 interviews with a cohort of junior doctors to explore the role doctors feel phronesis has in their medical ethics practice and how they acquire practical wisdom through storytelling as an essential part of their medical ethics education. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, we discuss the key role storytelling about moral exemplars and role models plays in developing medical ethics education, and how telling stories about role models is considered to be one of the most useful ways to learn medical ethics. We finish by developing an argument for why practical wisdom should be an important part of medical ...
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2018
Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern yo... more Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.
Knowledge, Expertise and the Professions
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, 2017
The Routledge Handbook of Applied Epistemology, 2018
The Oxford Handbook of Assertion, 2019
Battaly, H. (ed) (forthcoming) The Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology, 2018
Baehr, J. (ed.) 2016. Intellectual Virtues and Education: Essays In Applied Virtue Epistemology, 2016
While the teaching of intellectual virtue is receiving growing attention, little research exists ... more While the teaching of intellectual virtue is receiving growing attention, little research exists on how to assess the development of intellectual virtue in students. This is not without reason. Some may think that the development of intellectual virtue should not (or perhaps cannot) be assessed. Furthermore, standard forms of assessment – especially as we encounter them in the high stakes graded exams common in schools and universities – seem to encourage an instrumental rather than a virtuous orientation towards the value of knowledge. In this paper, I review the challenges that exist for teachers in assessing intellectual virtue. I review attempts that have been made to assess something like intellectual virtue in (1) research on moral development, (2) research on ‘personal epistemology’ and (3) research into critical thinking. I conclude that while it is possible to assess the development of intellectual virtue with enough precision to demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching for intellectual character, this does not imply that virtue must be graded.