4RS Campaign
Supporters
From Kings of Alternative Comedy Arthur Smith and Mark Steel to high profile educationalists and academics, the Philosophers Football Match 2010 aims to highlight the importance of thinking in schools and is attracting high-profile support.
We have a host of well-known UK intellectuals, comedians, broadcasters, writers and journalists who are playing in 'The Philosophers Football Match' or cheering on our philosophers from the sidelines in aid of the theme of 'More reasoning and creative thinking for our children.'
Julian Baggini
Simon Glendinning
AC Grayling
Andy Hamilton
Michael Hand
Tony Hawks
Dr Angie Hobbs
Bettany Hughes
John Humphrys
Terry Jones
Stephen Law
Fred Van Lente
Gary Lineker
Dr. Catherine C. McCall
Dr Anthony Seldon
Ariane Sherine
Arthur Smith
Mark Steel
Laurie Taylor
Graham Taylor
Mark Vernon
Nigel Warburton
Peter Worley
Our featured supporters have sent their own messages of support on the theme of 'More reasoning and creative thinking for our children' or, inspired by the classic Monty Python 'Philosophers' Football' clash of Greeks versus Germans, on the connection between philosophy and football…
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Julian Baggini
Julian Baggini is a leading public philosopher and author of over a dozen books on philosophy for the layman, including The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other Thought Experiments. He is co-founder and editor of The Philosophers' Magazine and his journalism also appears in newspapers and magazines such as the Times Higher Education Supplement.
Simon Glendinning
Simon Glendinning is Reader in European Philosophy in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Simon jokes he first realised he could make a career in philosophy when he spent two hours successfully untangling the twisted strings of a stunt kite, citing Wittgenstein's quote that 'Philosophy unties knots in our thinking; hence its results must be simple, but philosophizing has to be as complicated as the knots it unties'. He is still not clear whether philosophy is a complicated education for grown-ups... or just a simple occupation for grown-ups who never made it beyond childhood.
AC Grayling
Anthony Grayling is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Supernumary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. In support of his belief that the philosopher should engage in public debate, he brings philosophical perspectives to issues of the day in his work as a writer and as a commentator on radio and television, complementing his extensive philosophical bibliography. Grayling is a firm backer of both The Philosophy Shop and the 4Rs campaign.
Andy Hamilton
Andy Hamilton is a well-known comedian with a sceptical anti-establishment approach dovetailing well with this Python-inspired initiative. Hamilton first came to notice while performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the 1970s and he has subsequently been a feature of Have I Got News For You, QI and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue as well as voicing Dr Elephant on Peppa Pig! Andy co-wrote and created Drop the Dead Donkey, and more recently Outnumbered, which in the spirit of The 4Rs campaigns allows kids to express themselves.
Michael Hand
Philosopher Michael Hand of the London Institute of Education is interested in issues in philosophy of education, including the nature and aims of religious education, autonomy as an educational aim and teaching philosophy to children. He co-published in 2009 Philosophy in Schools which has several academics and education experts calling for philosophy to be taught as a way for children to learn to communicate more with each other and grow in confidence.
Tony Hawks
Tony is a well-known humorous author and comedian, whose first book, Round Ireland with a Fridge was an account of his Quixotic attempt to hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge to win a bar bet, sold over 500,000 copies. Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, his second book, also the result of a drunken bet, this time involved an attempt to beat each member of the Moldova national football team in a game of tennis while One Hit Wonderland describes his attempt, over 10 years after his first, to write a second hit song. A regular on many UK TV and radio shows, Tony recently presented his own series on Radio 4, Tony Hawks’ Lost Weekends.
Dr Angie Hobbs
Dr Angie Hobbs is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Warwick, with a particular interest in Ancient Greek philosophy and ethics. She has published widely in these areas, including Plato and the Hero. She broadcasts regularly on philosophy and the history of ideas, and is also a frequent contributor to newspapers, journals and web interviews. The University of Warwick has just announced her appointment as the U.K.'s first Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy, with a specific remit of bringing philosophy to as wide an audience as possible.
Bettany Hughes
Cultural & social historian, award-winning broadcaster and author, Bettany Hughes has been hailed by the national press as the woman who made the Ancient World exciting. Bettany has made some of television & radio’s most well-received recent history programmes, including 'When The Moors Ruled Europe,' 'Helen of Troy,' 'The Spartans' and 'Athens' among others. Her book on Helen of Troy was published in 2005 to great critical and popular acclaim and she is currently writing a book on Socrates.
John Humphrys
John Humphrys is one of the UK's most respected broadcasters and the winner of numerous national broadcasting awards. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the Nine O'Clock News, the flagship BBC news television programme and since 1987 he has been a presenter on the award winning BBC Radio 4 programme, Today. He is also the host of Mastermind, and the author of Lost for Words, Devil's Advocate, Beyond Words, The Great Food Gamble and In God We Doubt. John has a reputation for being a forthright interviewer, placing great emphasis on reason and evidence in his journalism and throughout his writing and professional life.
Terry Jones
A founding member of the legendary Monty Python team, Jones has been a much loved comedian, television performer and historian for 40 years. As well as the Python movies he directed Personal Services (1987) and Erik The Viking (1989) and Wind in the Willows (1996). Terry is a keen re-staging supporter for The Philosophy Football Match.
Stephen Law
Stephen Law is a philosopher at Heythrop College, University of London, and editor of THINK, published by The Royal Institute of Philosophy. Law's book The Philosophy Gym is an introduction to philosophical thinking aimed at adults, which won the first Mindelheim Philosophy Prize in 2009 while his The War For Children's Minds aims to expose the flaws in arguments calling for a return to authoritarian moral education.
Fred Van Lente
Fred Van Lente is author of the American Library Association award-winning ACTION PHILOSOPHERS, the comic book series detailing the lives and thoughts of history's influential thinkers in a hip and humorous way. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak) and Marvel Zombies 3, as well as Comic Book Comics, MODOK's 11, X Men Noir and Amazing Spider-Man.
Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker OBE is a retired English international football hero and is currently a well known BBC sports broadcaster. While playing for his country, most notably in the 1986 and 1990 World Cup Finals, his record means he is regarded as one of the all-time best English strikers. After his retirement from professional football he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.
Dr. Catherine C. McCall
Dr. Catherine C. McCall is a philosopher, author, philosophy consultant and Visiting Lecturer at Strathclyde University. She is President of SOPHIA: the European Foundation for Philosophy with Children and set up the postgraduate Centre for Philosophical Inquiry at Glasgow University. Her work was featured in The 1990 BBC documentary Socrates for Six Year Olds and is described in her latest book 'Transforming Thinking: Philosophical Inquiry in the Primary and Secondary Classroom’.
Dr Anthony Seldon
Anthony Seldon is a political historian and commentator on British political leadership as well as on education and contemporary Britain and is also Master of Wellington College, one of the country's leading independent schools. He is author or editor of over 25 books on contemporary history, politics and education, including the official biography of John Major and the first volume of his definitive life of Tony Blair, which was published to great acclaim in 2004. Seldon has long been a critic of league tables, the obsession with exams and the absence of holistic education for many years.
Ariane Sherine
Ariane Sherine is the journalist behind the recent atheist bus advertising campaign which proclaimed, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”. Ariane is also a successful TV comedy writer (My Family and Countdown) and is a regular contributor to The Guardian's Comment & Debate section, as well as having written for The Sunday Times and The Independent.
Arthur Smith
Arthur is widely hailed as the founding father of the alternative comedy circuit and is also the author of many successful West End shows such as An Evening With Gary Lineker. Arthur has a strong record in demystifying, for comedic effect, the intellectual, viz 'Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen' and his Dadaist pastiche of modern art on Radio 4, Arturart. Smith expresses the point of view of 'The Man on the Clapham Omnibus' about all the silliness (and seriousness) around him on the day.
Mark Steel
British comedian, author, broadcaster and political activist Mark Steel has written for UK national newspapers including The Independent and is a regular on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You?, QI and a host of Radio 4 panel games. His books include Reasons to be Cheerful, Vive La Revolution and It’s Not a Runner Bean, while his comic The Mark Steel Lectures on major figures in the history of ideas 'covered' Greek Philosophy from Pythagoras (“never ate beans”) to Plato (“old and bald”). Mark believes passionately that education can be taken seriously without it becoming inaccessible.
Laurie Taylor
Sociologist Laurie Taylor is the regular presenter for the BBC’s long-running weekly consideration of the social sciences, Thinking Allowed and is a former academic at such universities as the University of York, where he went on to become Professor of Sociology. Laurie is now a consultant, a writer for newspapers and magazines, television programmes contributor and prolific accomplished public speaker.
Graham Taylor
Graham Taylor is one of the best known and most colourful managers in England. After a playing career of almost 400 league games with Grimsby Town and Lincoln City he was a successful coach with Lincoln, Watford, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well as being appointed to the highest job in English football – managing England (1990-1993). Graham is now a high-profile pundit, match summarizer and ambassador for grassroots football.
Mark Vernon
Mark Vernon is a writer, broadcaster and journalist who is also an Honorary Research Fellow in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London with a PhD in philosophy from Warwick University and degrees in theology and physics from Oxford and Durham Universities and has also been a Church of England vicar. He writes regularly for The Guardian, TLS, Management Today and has appeared on Radio 4's In Our Time. His books include Plato's Podcasts: The Ancients Guide to Modern Living, The Philosophy of Friendship and Teach Yourself Humanism, while he also writes on business and management issues.
Nigel Warburton
Nigel Warburton is senior lecturer in philosophy at The Open University and a well-known popularizer of the subject for the general public and beginners in the field (e.g. Philosophy: The Basics and Thinking from A to Z). As well as writing books and articles on art and architecture he is Prospect magazine’s resident philosopher, makes regular appearances on Radio 4, and teaches courses on the philosophy of art at Tate Modern.
Peter Worley
London-based philosopher, writer and teacher Peter Worley is founder and director at The Philosophy Shop, a social enterprise for teaching philosophy to school children (as well as adult philosophy groups and residential courses in philosophy). Peter regularly writes and blogs on philosophy and education topics and has been teaching philosophy to primary school children across South East London for the last seven years. His new book The If Machine is a collection of philosophical thought experiments for young children.
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