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Taylor Swift and philosophy

Hosted by the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science

In-person and online public event (Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building)

Speakers

Eline Kuipers

King-Ho Leung

Georgie Mills

Dr Catherine M Robb

Chair

Professor Jonathan Birch

Taylor Swift's music connects with philosophy in many places: What is love? What is the value of negative emotions like anger, heartbreak and grief? Is there a moral obligation to speak out against injustice? What does it take to count as a "philosopher"? A new edited book, Taylor Swift and Philosophy, offers a fun and accessible discussion of the ideas and questions that arise from Taylor Swift's life and work.

Combining top-tier philosophical research and a passion for Taylor's music, a team of scholars investigate the wisdom that can come from Taylor's songs, bringing new perspectives to important contemporary issues. This panel event will launch the book with a discussion of its main themes.

Meet our speakers and chair

Eline Kuipers (@kuiperseline) is a doctoral researcher in philosophy of mind at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, where she is part of the Situated Cognition Research Group. Her work investigates how we plan, control, and execute our actions. One of her favourite actions is making sparkling friendship bracelets.

King-Ho Leung is Senior Research Fellow at St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, UK, where he teaches philosophy and theology. The lingering questions that keep him up include the relation between philosophy and religion, what it means to exist spiritually or authentically, and whether Taylor Swift will ever return to writing pop-country ballads.

Georgie Mills is a philosopher and songwriter studying for a PhD at Tilburg University. Her philosophical work explores topics such as personality, emotion, disability, fandom, and punk rock. She has been furious with Taylor Swift since a sixteen-year-old Georgie heard the first album of a sixteen-year-old Swift and could not believe someone her own age had the audacity to be such an accomplished songwriter.

Catherine M Robb (@catherinemrobb) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Tilburg University, Netherlands. She has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Glasgow, and previously worked at the University of Hull before moving to Tilburg in 2018. Her research interests span ethics, metaphysics, aesthetics, phenomenology and the philosophy of music. She is currently working on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological account of music, silence and ideas.

Jonathan Birch (@birchlse) is Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he is best known for his work on animal consciousness and the origins of altruism.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (@lsephilosophy) promotes research into philosophical, methodological and foundational questions arising in the natural and the social sciences.

This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024, taking place from 19 October to 9 November with events across the UK.

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This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience. 

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For any queries see LSE Events FAQ.

For the online event: Registration for this event will open after 10am on Monday 7 October.

For any queries email events@lse.ac.uk.

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