Laurie Taylor

" Baroness Blackstone's proposal [that teachers who are popular with their students should be given additional increments] will mean that lecturers will be more interested in communicating what they think students want to hear than what undergraduates need to master a subject " - Frank Furedi, THES February 9.

Welcome to this morning's theory seminar and congratulations to you all for arriving roughly on time. Well done.

Let's begin by examining your feedback on last week's seminar, which dealt with epistemological questions about the foundations of knowledge, with how "we know what we know".

I'm pleased to say that 20 per cent of you found the content "reasonably interesting" and "moderately entertaining". But there was a substantial 53 per cent that objected to the length of the word "epistemological", and a further 74 per cent that thought the word "epistemological" was "unnecessarily difficult" and "lacking any relevance to their own lives".

All that I can do is apologise. "Epistemological" is indeed a very long word, and concerns about how "we know what we know" may well be "irrelevant to real lives" and "unnecessarily theoretical". So, this week, in order to ensure that the seminar is more customer-focused, let's shift the emphasis away from the boring question of how we know what we know towards the more exciting question of what we actually know. And to make that even more fun, we'll use a familiar quiz format.

Let's start with Sadie Allcock in the second row. Sadie, for a grade of C+, which of the following is a distinguished philosopher:

a. Jane Russell

b. Willy Russell

c. Bertrand Russell

d. Ken Russell.

That's right. The answer is "Bertrand Russell". Well done. But now, for a grade B, can you tell me which of the following concepts refers to a pathological personal or social condition. Is it:

a. Enema

b. Anemone

c. Eminem

d. Anomie.

Very good. "Anomie" is the correct answer.

Sadie, you are only five questions away from a straight A grade.

Gosh, this is fun, isn't it? Isn't it?