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Showing posts from November, 2020

A New Leaf for the Looking Glass 2026/27

Dear all, Upon inheriting the Looking Glass from our predecessors, we identified a number of key issues. Firstly, there were simply not enough articles being published, due both to a lack of submissions from the school community and limited responsiveness from the previous Academic Team. Secondly, the Looking Glass had not been advertised or explained effectively enough to the wider school community. As a result, we plan to implement a more consistent and engaging stream of articles on the Looking Glass. As part of this initiative, we are looking to recruit a select group of keen writers from across the lower school who would be willing to produce one high-quality piece of writing, discussion, or media each month for publication on the Looking Glass. We believe this will be hugely beneficial both to the school community, which will gain access to a wider range of opinions and viewpoints, and to prospective writers, who will be able to reference their experience contributing to the Look...

Clair de Lune: The history of the world’s most overplayed piano piece

CHAMOD SAMARASINGHE Classical music is an unusual art. It is dominated by a few pieces which are far more popular than everything else which has been composed within the past few centuries. When compared to Beethoven’s fifth symphony, Bach’s toccata in d minor, Handel’s messiah and fur Elise (and a few others), everything else is a comparative blur to most. Scholars could argue that this is due to their memorable nature and overall simplicity (for the listener, not the composer), but there is one notable exception to this rule: Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. While the opening melody is certainly ear-catching and repetitive, everything else seems deliberately ambiguous, perfectly melancholy, and at times downright unusual. 

The Principle of Morality According to Kant

NOAH BUCKLE Note: As the present article relies heavily on the argumentation of Kant (comprising, more or less, a presentation or interpretation of the basics of his moral philosophy), I have not indicated in every case where Kant is quoted directly, choosing instead to supplement each discussion with a citation of the relevant passage(s). I see a great deal of value in his ethics, so much so that I feel it necessary only to reiterate the words of Jean Paul Richter: “For heaven’s sake, buy two books: Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and [his] Critique of Practical Reason !”