For Seren Students
Students from the Seren programme in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf were invited to take part in a series of five online philosophy sessions during Spring 2026.
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The sessions were held each Thursday on Zoom, with separate sessions for Years 8/9 and Years 10/11.
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If you want to talk more about this or any other opportunity please send an email to enquiries@giftcourses.co.uk
Philosophy explores some of the deepest questions of life, as well as some fascinating puzzles. It prizes questions that are difficult to resolve, where great minds can think differently and everyone has the opportunity to develop a point of view and arguments to support it.
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The programme was designed to provide great training for the mind and an interesting way for thoughtful young people to explore challenging ideas together. It was also intended to be fun - and, occasionally, a little weird.
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The sessions were funded by Seren, a Welsh Government initiative dedicated to helping Wales's brightest state-educated learners achieve their full academic potential and supporting their educational pathways into leading universities in Wales, the UK and overseas.
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An online forum also provided links to relevant resources for students who wanted to explore the subjects further and offered an opportunity to contribute thoughts following each session.
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Each session focused on philosophical questions connected to a different area, including technology, literature, Greek mythology, history and the ethics of science.
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The sessions were hosted by Jason Buckley, a leading expert in philosophy with young people who also specialises in supporting bright students to get the most from their studies.
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All five sessions were provided free of charge to participating students.
Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
If you found out a friend was a computer, should you still be friends? What would it take for a robot to have a mind of its own? Could switching one off ever be "robotslaughter"?
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Students considered whether we should develop super-intelligent machines and, if we do, how we might control them. The session explored questions that once belonged largely to science fiction but which may increasingly become real-world philosophical problems.
The Paradox of Spooky Fiction
Fear is an unpleasant emotion, yet from dark fairy tales to horror films, audiences have long been drawn to a good scare.
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This session explored how fear can become a source of pleasure. Students considered whether we seek out frightening fiction as a rehearsal for dangerous situations, as a way of learning to avoid them, or perhaps as an opportunity to prove our courage.
Philosophy Through Greek Mythology
Greek mythology is filled with extreme situations that invite deep philosophical questions.
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Using the epic story of Odysseus, and drawing on Peter Worley's The If Odyssey and other materials, students explored questions concerning duty, freedom, lies and virtue.
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Are you more free if you can do what you want, or if you can choose what you want to want in the first place? Is being able to deceive people a heroic trait? Is a fake happiness preferable to a difficult reality?
History & Futurology of Good and Evil
Gladiatorial combat, ducking witches and burning heretics at the stake - history contains many practices that were widely considered normal or acceptable at the time but which we now regard as cruel and misguided.
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Students turned that idea towards the present and asked: What things that we do today might future generations view with the same disgust?
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The session considered whether there is such a thing as moral progress and whether our understanding of right and wrong genuinely improves over time.
What Shouldn't Science Do?
Science brings knowledge, but sometimes at a price. This final session asked when that price becomes too high.
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Students explored some of the difficult issues faced by ethics committees when deciding whether scientific experiments should be permitted.
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Drawing on experiments from both fact and fiction, the session considered issues including consent, the benefits of scientific progress, human and animal suffering, and the potential for scientific knowledge to be used for both good and ill.
This programme has now ended, and bookings are no longer available. If you want to talk more about this or any other opportunity please send an email to enquiries@giftcourses.co.uk