In a follow-up to his 2015 World Philosophy Day Guardian article, Andy West considers the impact of philosophy on young people in prison, finding that – while there may be no single cause of sudden transformation – there is an incremental power to finding understanding and formulating explanations.
Guest Blog
Thirty years of P4C: #8 — No single cause… but the drip, drip of incremental insight
What I am learning, slower than I would like to, is that in a survivalist environment, like a young offenders’ institute, the impact of philosophy is fine and delicate.
On World Philosophy Day 2015, I wrote in The Guardian about growing up with my family in prison and the impact that my philosophy teacher Robert had on me when I was 17 years old.
As a teenager I was alienated and oppositional – and therefore an irritating student for many teachers. However, Robert was kind and patient enough to see the philosophical spirit behind my argumentative mood, and he nurtured it until I found myself at the doors of a university.
When the article above was published, Robert wrote to me to say that I may have been attributing too much to the role he played in opening up possibilities in my life, and that there were other factors at play too. It was like I was 17 again and he was sitting behind his desk telling me, ‘Be careful of the fallacy of the single cause.’
This year I’ve been teaching groups of 15 to 17-year-old boys in prison. Many of have them have already trained themselves to have dead eyes so as to not appear naive on the landing. One of them only ever speaks to me with an exaggerated smile on his face and says everything with an ironic inflection. I would be lying if I said I could always see beyond the alienation and anger that they present to me.
On days that go well, we talk about subjects like identity, time, justice and joy… and then an officer opens my classroom door and escorts the young men back to their cells, staggering the order in which he takes them so that they do not cross a rival gang member in the corridor. Watching them leave is a visceral reminder of the fallacy of the single cause. Sometimes, the impact I have on them can feel painfully insufficient in the face of the social, material and psychological obstacles they have faced in their lives and face again now in prison.
What I am learning, slower than I would like to, is that in a survivalist environment, like a young offenders’ institute, the impact of philosophy is fine and delicate. It comes in moments rather than in stories of redemption and grandiose transformation. But I see it: when a brightness flashes in a boy’s eyes again, before he’s had time to catch it and shut it down; or when a young man’s ironic smile dissipates, and he leans forward in his chair to explain something.
