Philosophers in the Making: Domremy Students Take on the Socratic Summit

On Tuesday 25 August, students represented our school at Newington College for the 2026 Socratic Summit – a day dedicated to collaborative debate, philosophical inquiry, and critical thinking.

Sitting in mixed circles of inquiry, participants kicked off the day with a warm-up exercise debating contentious claims and practised respectfully agreeing, disagreeing, and evaluating arguments.

The inquiry expanded across four core sessions:

• The Moral Domain: Categorising actions as MORAL or NOT MORAL and building criteria to test logic.
• Judging Right & Wrong: Examining societal norms to question whether doing what is “normal” or “natural” makes an action right.
• Good Taste & Aesthetics: Debating subjective preference versus objective quality (“It is good because I like it ” vs. “I like it because it’s good“) and questioning expertise in art and music.
• Ethics in Art: Analysing real-world scenarios to tackle complex questions surrounding censorship and aesthetic value.

Throughout the day, students reflected continuously on their process – focusing on active listening, turn-taking, and acknowledging different points of view.

They left with a final puzzle to ponder: Is ‘good’ a subjective or objective concept, or does it exist outside human judgment?

Congratulations to all participants for representing our school with outstanding curiosity and intellectual courage!

Lisa Ganderton, Leader of Enquiry and Enterprise