The pupils of Harris Westminster school settled down for assembly. What would their head teacher, James Handscombe, have to say to them today? Sometimes he quoted from Shakespeare, sometimes from WB YeatsAn Irish poet and dramatist who is often considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century. or John DonneA 17th Century English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary. or Samuel BeckettAn Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet who was a key literary figure of the 20th Century.. But no: this time he chose not a giant of English literature but a 33-year-old singer-songwriter - Taylor Swift.

Harris Westminster is an outstanding London school which takes a large number of bright pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. In a book about it called A School Built on EthosThe characteristic spirit of a culture., James Handscombe writes that he considers Swift to be "one of the greatest philosophers of the age". As the singer embarks on a new tour, the claim is being widely discussed.

One of the songs Handscombe picks out is Blank Space, with the lines: "Cause we're young and we're reckless, we'll take this way too far, It'll leave you breathless or with a nasty scar." This, he believes, carries the important message that being young means taking risks.

Mean, which deals with bullying, points out that we can rise above other people's hostility and make our own way in life: "Someday I'll be living in a big old city - and all you're ever going to be is mean."

Handscombe thinks that CS LewisA British writer most famous for his children's series The Chronicles of Narnia. "would have enjoyed Taylor's thesis [as expressed in Shake It Off] that being yourself is key and that following the crowd is dangerous".

In a rave review of her new tour¹ Neil McCormick agrees that Swift's songs are "deep", while another journalist, Phillip Kong, calls her² "a philosopher who publishes her works in the form of country and pop albums". He sees her career as a progression from being "an adamantSure, certain. essentialist to a carefree existentialistA form of philosophy exploring the meaning of human existence. ."

Essentialism is the view that everything has "essential" characteristics that define it. Kong gives the example of a rabbit, of which carrot-eating is a defining feature. An animal that does not eat carrots cannot be a rabbit.

Existentialism, on the other hand, holds that nothing is essential or predetermined. Everyone has choices and can decide the meaning of his or her life.

Kong argues that in Swift's second album, Fearless, she takes an essentialist view of romance. In You Belong With Me, for example, she writes that "what you're looking for has been here the whole time".

But six years later, in the album 1989, she reaches what Kong considers a turning point. Blank Space contains the lines "so it's gonna be forever, Or it's gonna go down in flames," while in Shake It Off she declares: "I make the moves up as I go." Both suggest that nothing is definite.

Kong goes further and argues that Shake It Off is actually "an extended metaphor of how she shook off the shacklesThe metal links used to connect prisoners to chains. of essentialism". But he admits that she could change her mind again:

"The existentialist Taylor Swift is the one we know today, but she may very well surprise us all in the future."

Yes: Like them, Swift grapples with some of the deepest problems in life and has a gift for expressing herself in beautiful and thought-provoking lyrics. On top of that, she writes brilliant tunes.  

No: They wrote highly complex poems in which they explored ideas in real depth. It is impossible to do that in a short song: "All you're ever going to be is mean" can hardly be called great philosophy.

Or... What really matters, according to Elon Musk, is not her philosophy but her "limbic resonance skill". This is defined as "a state of deep emotional and physiological connection between two people".