About HIP
Why philosophy,
why now?
HIP exists because philosophy has too small a place in the education of young people. It should not be reserved for later study, specialist spaces or spare time.
The current reality
Young people are rarely given sustained opportunities to examine assumptions, question fundamental ideas and engage seriously with difficult questions.
A young person should not need permission to think deeply.
Philosophical inquiry gives students a way to explore questions that matter to them while practising intellectual habits that will serve them in every part of life.
HIP brings that work into schools through dialogue, questioning and discussion. We are not here to tell young people what conclusions to inherit. We want to help create the conditions in which they can form their own, carefully and openly.
Our response begins in the classroom, with the serious attention of a group of students.
We aim to work alongside schools to make philosophical discussion a real part of school life: not an enrichment afterthought, but a way of learning that develops curiosity, reasoning and intellectual independence.
From there, young people can find other spaces to continue the conversation — with their peers, across schools and beyond individual lessons.
Our principles
Six commitments that keep the work both serious and open.
Intellectual humilityOften, knowledge lies in the ability to step down, not step up.
Here at the HIP, we never want students' own intellectual power to be the road-block on the path to knowledge. We always encourage re-examination of ideas, and never prioritise the answers of a few "brighter" students, simply for the fact they are "brighter".
Open inquiryNo question is too big or too small.
Often in the classroom, questions are relegated due to them being either "out-of-scope" or "too menial" for answer to be worth given. At HIP, we understand every question is the result of inner-processing, which is why it is key that the answers give supplementation to the minds of the questioner.
RigourIdeas should be examined, not merely asserted.
What use is an answer if it was achieved through mere spin-of-the-wheel? At HIP, we encourage students to examine their ideas just as much as anyone else's. Its not the final words on the page that count, but the road to get to them. That is what HIP develops.
Intellectual independenceNever inherit a conclusion.
Every student possesses a mind capable of forming and defending its own judgements. Yet independence does not mean rejecting guidance; it means questioning what we are told, weighing the reasons behind it, and deciding what we can honestly accept. At HIP, our goal is to develop thinkers who do not simply repeat the loudest or most established view, but have the confidence to ask why, reach their own conclusions, and revise them when stronger reasons emerge.
DialogueUnderstanding comes through genuine engagement.
Viewing ideas with an impartial eye, at HIP we notice the fruits of discussion; our primary means of giving students greater knowledge.
ActionPhilosophy duly encompasses the way we live, act and think.
Noticing the cumulative effect that sustained changes to thinking can have on the character of an individual, HIP wishes to give students the tools to carve their own character.