Engaging Questions 2026

This annual workshop is a joint venture between the Centre for Critical Thinking and Ethics at Newington College and the Association for Philosophy in schools NSW. Sessions are tailored for secondary Philosophy teachers but are open to all teachers wishing to engage their students' conceptual thinking in communities of inquiry. The 2026 program is aligned with and helps to support the teaching of the NSW Department of Education Stage 5 Philosophy Elective Option 2: Metaphysics.

Programme:

9:00 Registration & coffee

9:30 Keynote - Aristotle’s Metaphysics: The Science of Being - Prof David Bronstein (UND) 

• Professor Bronstein is the Director of the Institute for Ethics and Society and the Co-Director of the Centre for the History of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame Australia. He is also an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. His research is in Ancient Greek philosophy. He has published several journal articles and book chapters on Plato and Aristotle and is the author of the book Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning: the Posterior Analytics (Oxford University Press, 2016). 

11:00 Realism vs Anti-realism: matter, mind, morality and mathematics – Dr Jonathan Hall (St Andrew’s Cathedral School) 

12:00 Pascal's Wager – Miguel Regalo (Newington College) 

1:30 Attention and Freedom – Ronan Geraghty (Newington & Philosophy in Schools NSW) 

2:30 Philosophy as Dialogue – Dr Britta Jensen (Newington & Philosophy in Schools NSW) 

The course fee of $65.00 per person covers catering, including lunch and refreshments.

RSVP by 10 March.

The Centre for Critical Thinking and Ethics is part of a global network that advocates for children to engage in philosophical inquiry. We are official partners of the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, who endorse this workshop.