Choice, nuance and how everything is Decartes' fault

Hello. Wouldn't it be great if every choice we faced was binary; this or that, up or down, left or right.
The problem is life, science and research are rarely that tidy despite the temptation to make it so and that's what this post is about. When you're reading research or writing assignments it's sometimes tempting to go with the 'one thing or the other' approach as it's easy to write and means that more often than not you won't have to read too much.

But it probably won't get you a good mark and it won't leave you with the feeling that you've done your best.

And more to the point, as tempting as it is, there's often more potential outcomes and options than just two.
The reason why I'm squarely blaming Descartes for this relatively modern obsession is because he was one of the first philosophers to propose that the mind and body were split into two discrete elements-and it really caught on. Suddenly dualism was everywhere and people were dividing things into two categories as explanations for social phenomena. At the moment, dualism is enjoying a renaissance which is interesting and a little surprising. Although maybe it's to do with people wanting simple answers to complex problems in times of uncertainty-it's just a thought.

Anyway, if you want to look up concepts like dualism use Credo, our online database of encyclopedias; it's easy to use and provides enough detail to get you started on most topics.

Finally, remember that most issues are not black and white; subtlety or nuance are important skills when discussing and writing about topics and need to be honed like any other. That always comes from reading and making connections between authors and findings.

As always, come and see me if you want to discuss any of these issues, along with help and advice on anything else.

Poor doors, social housing and the politics of accomodation

I'm starting to face the fact that I may no longer be working class.
Between myself and my wife we own four and a half degrees, three cats, one (mostly unused) bread maker and one house. We've also just started employing a cleaner. Or as a friend of mine neatly put it, "ha, you now have staff".

When we lived in Milton Keynes we had a rented house on a key worker estate. It was fine. Everyone was either a teacher, policeman, nurse etc and it was a pleasant enough atmosphere. We didn't feel like second class anythings. Skip forward to us finally getting our own house in Leighton Buzzard on a new build...and the first thing the estate agent said to us was 'how far away do you want to be from the social housing tenants?' We were genuinely shocked.
Our supposed transformation from one social group into another was brought back to me this morning when I heard about these so-called 'poor doors' and the growing economic divisions in the UK. Housing has always been political. It's been used to keep rich and poor apart since Victorian times but there's growing evidence that it's happening on a larger scale.

So with all that in mind I'd like to suggest some resources to you; firstly, a radio show called the Moral maze covered the topic of social inclusion from a moral standpoint last night (Wednesday) at 8pm on Radio 4. Just follow this link to listen again if you don't see this post until after it's been broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054qfjx  .

Finally, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is constantly examining the links between housing, health and social standing. The full range of their published reports is available from here.