- 12
- Episodes
- 2023
- First episode
About Elenchus
A podcast where we find truth through dialogue. locusgroup.substack.com (https://locusgroup.substack.com/s/elenchus?utm_medium=podcast)
- Publisher
- Finding truth through dialogue
- Category
- education · society & culture
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 12 Nov 2023
- Latest episode
- 2 Jun 2025
Latest episodes
12 episodes in the feed.
2 Jun 2025
What do you do when the experts disagree?
In this extra episode Dan and Jonathan discuss what it means to know what is actually true, whether you trust other people’s expertise and if there is a role for more consensus to be sought in the scientific community as there once was through the Royal Society. This episode breaks the usual mould and is a bit more of a free flowing conversation. We intend to return to this topic will a full article and discussion. Thanks for listening to the episode! Subscribe for free to stay up to date with new releases. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit locusgroup.substack.com (https://locusgroup.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
29 Apr 2025
Life of a slow learner
Why are humans so slow to learn? Somehow despite our parents telling us not to touch the oven because it’s hot, most of still have test the theory ourselves. One of the most humbling experiences in life is to believe you have learned a lesson only to have lift teach it to you again in another form. This got me thinking about what life lessons I began learning in my youth, that I have had to relearn again and again. I only hope that eventually these will be well practiced enough to be second nature. The first is to cultivate gratitude. I vividly remember one geography lesson where we played a game. Each team was given some raw materials and some tools. The rules were simple the same for everyone: make geometric shapes out of paper, sell them at the market rates and make the most money. Everyone set off with the typical gusto generated by a lesson that breaks the usual mould. At least until we began to notice things weren’t as fair as they seemed. One team, who had a precise pair of compasses was rapidly selling perfect circles, whilst another team with no scissors could only output wonky triangles. At the end of the game, each team was asked to assess their performance. The winning team reflected on their efficient production line system. The losing team felt they had been doomed to fail given they had only started with a pencil. It was true that the winning team had made their manufacturing process efficient, but in reality, that was not really the reason for their success. Their inability to recognise and be grateful for the tools and resources they had started with led to an over inflated sense of ‘deserving the win’. On the other hand, the losing team took no responsibility for their output. Instead blaming circumstances outside of their control and making frustrated comparisons with others. Most of your life you will find yourself somewhere in the middle, with many less fortunate beneath you and others more fortunate above. It is therefore important to remember to simultaneously be grateful for the many things you do have, take responsibility for those who may have less than you, and when things don’t pan out as you would have liked, spend less time blaming things around you. To that end I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Hymers, as my siblings and I were beneficiaries of your bursary scheme. I am therefore personally grateful for the contribution you made to my education and perhaps more importantly to the development of my teenage self! The second lesson I began to learn during my time at schools is captured best in the words of Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, only trade offs. I must admit this one has served me well as a policy maker. At school, my favourite subjects were maths, science and electronics and as such I was trained that solutions do exist and that they can be found. So you can forgive me for being a little surprised, that reality tends not to be so easy to pin down. This truth hit me first in my late teens when I developed a hormone deficiency that prevented me from attending school full time. Due to a combination of the flexible input from my teachers and my own resolve, my grades remained good. My aspiration to go to Cambridge was still within my grasp, but my body was letting me down. So what do you choose? An easier maths course at a different uni, or take a risk on Cambridge where I’d felt most at home with others. What would be a more enjoyable day to day life? What would make me happiest in the long run? I decided to take a chance on Cambridge and truthfully my first year was awful. The pace of life both socially and academically made making friends hard and I only just scaped through my end of year exams. Perhaps it wasn’t possible for me to complete this course without becoming a recluse doing so. All my fears had been realised and I wondered if I should quit and if I had misjudged the whole situation. But truthfully, I shouldn’t have been surprised as what I was experiencing was the bad end of the trade-off that I knew I had made. I begrudgingly decided that if both deep friendships and maths were important to me, I needed to make some changes to my lifestyle and I went back for a second year. Slowly but surely things began to evolve. By the end of my time at Cambridge, I had developed not only lifelong friends but the pride that comes from testing your academic ability to the limit. I know this appears like a story of resilience. But the other lesson I learned is about opportunity cost. When you say ‘yes’ to something you implicitly say no to something else. Therefore, everything has a cost. I don’t say this to scare you, but to remind you to ask yourself what price am I willing to pay to achieve this goal. Being conscious of this enables you to be a more deliberate agent in your own life. Someone who is able to acknowledge the multiplicity of factors that fulfil you and who might avoid waking up in 15 years time having achieved one dream but at the expense of all else. From the stories I have told so far it’s probably not that hard to tell what type of kid I was. I was the one that the rest of the class rolled their eyes at when the homework was to design a poster and I came into school with a 3d pop out masterpiece, or who asked a question at the end of class that triggered a long rant from the teacher and lost them half of break time. It is this version of me, who after receiving the score for my geography coursework walked over to my teacher to innocently request an explanation for the one lost mark. So that I might ‘learn for the future!’ Mrs Copeland just looked me direct in the eye and laughed. Sometimes Emily That’s life. Her reply was the first step for me in learning to take life a little less seriously. Or rather learning to discern the things that ought to be taken seriously and otherwise learning to laugh at oneself. Laughter is an amazing thing, its infectious, it brings perspective and it can help us gently accept the weirdest and ugliest parts of ourselves. Many things in life don’t have the stakes that we believe they do and a recognising your idiosyncratic perspectives are not in fact the singular divine truth is an important developmental milestone for us all! On the theme of taking life a little less seriously I would like to wrap up by reading an excerpt of a book by the whimsical children’s writer Dr Seuss. The book is titled ‘Oh the places you’ll go” and is as a reminder to me that truth can be found in the most unlikely places. Im sorry to say But sadly its true That bang ups and hang ups can happen to you So be sure when you step Step with care and great tact And remember that life’s a great balancing act. Just never forget to be dextrous and deft and never mix up your right foot with your left And you will succeed Yes! You will indeed 98 and ¾% guaranteed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit locusgroup.substack.com (https://locusgroup.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
11 Jan 2024
Arthurian Legend
Ben returns for a discussion on the great King Arthur, his mythos, the legacy and lessons of the knights of the round table. Jonathan uses specific examples of tales from the historical classic to draw out some lessons for living, loving and fighting for what's good, while Ben complicates the picture with questions around nobility and sacrifice.
5 Jan 2024
Anarchism Vs. Architecture
Ben shares a representation, and Jonathan builds on the ideas within his talk of creativity and freedom. They explore the social dilemmas around freedom and the difficulty finding it, even in our selves. The discussion touches on various approaches to system building and destroying, as well as areas where it might be correct to avoid imposing control altogether.
20 Dec 2023
Students and Teachers
We are all called upon to be both student and teacher in our lives, but how does the educational system treat these roles? In our final episode in a four part series, Sean and Jonathan examine the role of the teacher and the associated responsibilities of the position. In the second half of the podcast, a challenge is put to students and there is a discussion on the mechanisms of motivation that might need to be fostered.
12 Dec 2023
Ecosystems of Education
The structure of a school, and the systems that prop it up. Emily shares her analogy and considers how to enrich the lives of students and educators from her experience working to develop modern day systems. Jonathan complains that the education system is far behind the curve of progress and development, and points out the self-enforcing two-way cycle of miseducation between schools and wider social institutions.
4 Dec 2023
Philosophy of Education
Sean returns to explore the meta-ethical underpinnings of our education system, and how a shift in focus might address the various problems within it. Jonathan shares his views on this, perhaps the most important of social functions.
13 Nov 2023
Character in Education
Special guest Sean Clifford reflects on a new kind of education system which prioritises character over grades.
13 Nov 2023
Youth is Bold, Age is Cold
Special guest Emily Burr shares some reflections on embracing aging and how to grow older in a healthy way.
13 Nov 2023
Morality
Jonathan takes a pretty good look at good to find out what's so good about good.
13 Nov 2023
Insignificance
Jonathan engages in the difficult challenge of finding significance in a world of 8 billion.
12 Nov 2023
The Place We Meet
Jonathan outlines the basic tenets of Locus and begins to explore the relationship between Elenchus and Tikvah.
Contact Elenchus
- Guest appearances
- Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Elenchus?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show
Podcast research with Pod Engine