Interviewing ‘king of philosophy’ Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson

Fabian Robertson interviews.

Few educators are celebrated by their students as much as Sebastian Seqouiah-Grayson: lecturer and coordinator of PHIL1012 Introductory Logic. Dubbed the “GOAT”, the “king of philosophy” and the only reason trek to Camperdown by adoring USyd Ranters, Seb has become something of a campus icon. Such is the popularity of Seb’s lecturing that his course, PHIL1012, has over 2200 enrolled students across 92 tutorials - a University record for Arts and Social Sciences courses according to Honi Soit.

Listening to Seb speak from his home on Bondi Beach, it’s easy to see why. For an individual with a novella-length CV and a borderline-intimidating amount of brainpower, Seb is unwaveringly self-effacing.

“It’s wonderful and really, really delightful that so many students are fond of the unit and my lecturing”, he says.

Seb pays tribute to Professor Nicholas Smith, who designed the PHIL1012 course and wrote its “absolutely wonderful” textbook, The Laws of Truth.

He also stresses the importance of professional staff in timetabling and organising such a large course. “There are whole corridors full of people in basement offices poring over databases and spreadsheets making it all come together. You need a very supportive school and department of course, and most of all you need really, really good tutors. Logic has 14 tutors this year, and they are gods amongst mortals.”

Teaching style

Seb disagrees with the notion that “teachers are born and not made”.

“The first couple of courses I taught … by my standards today they were bumbling disasters.”

Seb calls his time at Oxford - where he studied a Doctorate in philosophy - a “real turning point” for his teaching.

“Nigel Bowles made the point to me that [as educators] we’re not just training somebody - it’s not mere instruction of a person, but the creation of them… that sense of responsibility is something that I feel very viscerally,” he says.

Inky

Seb teaches alongside his trusty companion, Inky, a sentient STAEDTLER whiteboard marker with a particular aptitude for breaking down complex philosophical concepts.

“I don’t know how I’d teach without Inky - his contributions are invaluable,” he says.

Seb, however, avoided questions regarding Inky’s lifespan and refused to clear up whether he requires ink refills or is simply replaced - a question which has become the subject of controversy for many. Investigations continue.

Undergraduate life and Manning Bar

Seb graduated from a BA (Hons) in Philosophy at USyd in 2003. As an undergrad, Seb was Vice President of the Russellian Society.

He speaks fondly of Manning Bar in its heyday, before it was knocked down and rebuilt: a decision for which “somebody should have gone to prison,” jokes Seb.

It was an “absolutely fantastic, wonderful place - it used to be this seething pit of anarchy and punk,” Seb says.

“Now it looks like an airport lounge in a tinpot country in the middle of nowhere - it’s like standing in line at a KFC,” he says. “It’s an absolutely terrible, terrible shame - truly quite heartbreaking.”

Seb was on campus during the bar’s reconstruction in 1999.

“I was nearby when construction workers were digging the foundations. I turned to a friend and said ‘I’m pretty sure I can smell gas’. I looked out the window and all the construction workers … were legging it up Manning Road away from the bar as quickly as they could. The alarm eventually went off and we all fled. That was a bad omen - a good indication of things to come,” he says.

Seb contextualises the decline of Manning as part of a uni-wide cultural shift.

“There are no spaces on campus anymore that have emerged from the personality and cultures between and of the students themselves. Everything is catered for and designed and a franchise,” Seb says.

He compares it to a kids’ birthday party where “the adults design all the fun for you”.

“As soon as something looks a little bit grimy someone knocks it down and builds something new and shiny on top of it,” he says

“You go to O-week and you’ve got the bloody Commonwealth Bank,” Seb says.

The emotion in Seb’s voice is palpable - you can’t help but share his nostalgia for a bygone era of thriving campus culture, uninhibited by soul-sucking corporate sanitization and Voluntary Student Unionism (thanks Howard, you fuckwit).

Music

Seb would love to see the University “throw themselves” into “fully-fledged and multidimensional teaching of the philosophy of aesthetics.” This would include “the philosophy of music” - unpacking the “significance and meaning of spacial sonic structures in our lives,” he says.

Students may not know that Seb is a musician, more specifically a guitarist, producer and live performer. He calls music one of his “deepest passions” alongside philosophy, teaching, cooking, fashion, people and politics.

Yet Seb is no conventional musician. At risk of being overly reductive, most of Seb’s music discards traditional song structures to emphasise spontaneity and prioritise experimentation with ‘envirosonic relationships’. For example, the first song in his album, Construction Improvisations, is an unedited guitar track played live underneath the north side of the Harbour Bridge. The background noise, complete with passing trains and commuters, forms a “wonderful sonic environment”.

Seb stresses that his music isn’t “particularly goal-oriented”. “If anything, it might just be sifting for an artistic experience, like sifting for gold.”

Seb’s love for music is further made obvious by the fact that, when quizzed, he has a pre-prepared list of ‘top five’ favourite albums - no doubt meticulously and agonisingly assembled. They are, in no particular order, Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, Evol by Sonic Youth, Fear of a Black Planet by Public Enemy, The Beatles (The White Album) by The Beatles and Front by Front by Front 242.

Seb doesn’t have a strong affection for contemporary mainstream music. He doesn’t know “what on earth is being played on Triple J these days”. “I stopped listening as soon as they went national because I just thought the lowest common denominator was pretty low,” he says.

But “within the world of contemporary music with traditional song structure”, Seb recommends Alice Phoebe Lou. According to Seb, her music makes you feel as though you “are falling into an entire universe of sound”.

A philosopher?

Seb does not call himself a philosopher. People who “introduce themselves as philosophers are usually a bit much,” he says. “They usually have nothing to do with academic philosophy, usually they’re just some lunatic cornering you in a café.”

“Five times out of ten, if you told someone you’re a philosopher they might punch you in the head - it’s a very real danger,” Seb says.

Inspiration

Seb pays tribute to Jon Michael Dunn, a recently deceased Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Informatics and Computer Science who Seb calls an “absolute genius”.

“If it wasn’t for Mike Dunn, my entire outlook on abstract objects would be very different. His contributions to theoretical computer science and logical philosophy are going to have a real impact for generations,” he says.

“Mike has a way of looking out over the most incomprehensibly complex and uncharted regions of abstractor and rendering them down in elegant and beautifully simple logical structures,” Seb says.

Interested in PHIL1012?

Seb says his emails are always open to students wanting to learn more about one of his units. To students who may be interested in PHIL1012 but are unable to enrol, Seb recommends sitting in a lecture upon the return to campus, or simply emailing him to gain access to the Canvas site.

Seb recommends Logic: The Laws of Truth by Nicholas Smith and Doing Philosophy by Timothy Williamson as starting points for study.

How to prove someone wrong

Rather than providing advice on how to prove someone wrong, Seb relayed the wisdom of USyd Professor Emeritus, Paul Redding.

“Time might be better spent trying to understand how they might possibly be right. If you seek genuine dialogue and understanding then you need a starting point of mutual shared understanding,” Seb says.

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To read more about Seb, visit his website.

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Inky was not available for comment but can be contacted at: inkythewhiteboardmarker@gmail.com