Teaching Philosophy > Philosophy for Children > Philosophy for Children: Metaphilosophy

Philosophy for Children: Metaphilosophy

Edited by Félix García Moriyón (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
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Summary

Metaphilosophy is the philosophical study of philosophy itself. In the case of Philosophy for Children, it is the reflection on the philosophical dimension of the proposal of introducing philosophical inquiry in grades K-8 . For centuries, the Western philosophical tradition has largely rejected the possibility of philosophical reflection in pre-youth times. Those who argue the possibility of true philosophical inquiry with 4 to 5 years old children, need to prove that the dialogues in the classroom were philosophical in both content (children could talk about classical philosophical topics, like truth, beauty or goodness) and procedure (they can offer sound reasoning in their dialogues). The fundamental question are: can children do philosophy? Are dialogues with children in educational settings really philosophical? What concept of philosophy do we use when we talk about philosophy for children? Do teachers who facilitate or lead a philosophical discussion need a sound philosophical background?
Key works Key works. There are various seminal works that open the discussion. Of course, Lipman’s books Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery (N.J.: IAPC, 1974) and, together with Ann Sharp, Philosophical Inquiry. (Instructional Manual to Accompany Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery) (N.J.: IAPC, 1975) started the discussion. Very early a metaphilosophical discussion was triggered with the monographic issue of Metaphilosophy, v. 7, no. 1, Jan. 1976, edited by Terrell Ward Bynum, titled: What is philosophy for children?—An introduction. In a footnote, they explained: In the present volume, “Philosophy for Children” means philosophy for children in grades K‐8. Two other books, Philosophy in the Classroom, with Ann Margaret Sharp and Frederick S. Oscanyan (1st edition, N.J.: IAPC, 1977) and Growing Up With Philosophy, ed. with Ann Margaret Sharp (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978), offered a metaphilosophical reflection about the program. In 1980, Gareth Matthews published another very important book, Philosophy and the Young Child (Harvard, 1980). All those publications can be considered as the seminal works, and since then, many other articles and books have sustained a discussion with those who still are doubtful about, or just deny, the possibility of a philosophical reflection by children. And it is also a subject of ongoing reflection for all those committed to the dissemination of philosophy with/for children.
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  1. Is That a Philosophical Question? The Philosopher as Teacher.Karen S. Emmerman - 2021 - Metaphilosophy 52 (2):302-320.
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  2. The Educational Value of Analytic Philosophy.Jane Gatley - 2021 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 7 (1):59-77.
    In this article, I outline three critiques of analytic philosophy; that it is irrelevant to individuals and society; unconstructive; and excessively technical. These critiques are linked to skepticism about the educational value of analytic philosophy. In response, I suggest that if analytic philosophy provides constructive guidance about prominent and pressing questions, then it holds potential educational value. I identify a body of prominent and pressing questions that are addressed by analytic philosophy as a discipline. Because analytic philosophy is often concerned (...)
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  3. P4C & Community-Engaged Pedagogy.Erik Kenyon - 2021 - In Stephen Miller (ed.), Intentional Disruptions: Expanding Access to Philosophy. pp. 35-48.
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  4. atrever-se a uma escrita infantil: a infância como abrigo e refúgio.Walter Kohan & Magda Costa Carvalho - 2021 - Childhood and Philosophy 17 (17):1-30.
    The present text is a childlike exercise in writing. In responding to an invitation to write an adult, academic text, we the authors found that the presence of a child's standpoint acted to change the expressions that were to be elucidated, and that the project that adult writing represents was suspended by the creative force of childhood. "Philosophy for children" became "children for philosophy"; "moral education" became "the end (of) morality" and "conceptions of childhood" became the "childhood of conceptions." As (...)
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  5. escritura infantil: niñas y niños para filosofía o la infancia como abrigo y refugio.Walter Kohan & Magda Costa Carvalho - 2021 - In Tópicos filosofía educación para el siglo XXI. 88: pp. 55.
    Este ha sido el mundo infantil – imposible y contradictorio – que sentimos habitar en este escrito, en esta escritura. En ese mundo, como ahora, el inicio y el final coinciden. En ese mundo, que Heráclito llamaría aión, es la infancia la que gobierna. Un gobierno infantil. Por lo tanto, es tiempo de callarnos. De estarnos sin tanta luz y sin tantas palabras. Para dormir y soñar. Es tiempo de terminar. O de comenzar. Los y las lectores infantiles (no) tienen (...)
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  6. Practising Philosophy of Mathematics with Children.Elisa Bezençon - 2020 - Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal 36.
    This article examines the possibility of philosophizing about mathematics with children. It aims at outlining the nature of the practice of philosophy of mathematics with children in a mainly theoretical and exploratory way. First, an attempt at a definition is proposed. Second, I suggest some reasons that might motivate such a practice. My thesis is that one can identify an intrinsic as well as two extrinsic goals of philosophizing about mathematics with children. The intrinsic goal is related to a presumed (...)
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  7. Philosophy for Children and the Extrinsic Value of Academic Philosophy.Jane Gatley - 2020 - Metaphilosophy 51 (4):548-563.
    External pressure on Higher Education Institutes in the United Kingdom has brought the question of the extrinsic value of academic philosophy into focus. One line of research into questions about the extrinsic value of philosophy comes from the Philosophy for Children (P4C) movement. There is a large body of literature about the benefits of P4C. This paper argues that the distinctive nature of the P4C pedagogy limits the claims made by the P4C literature about the extrinsic value of philosophy to (...)
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  8. The Utah Lyceum: Cultivating "Reasonableness" in Southwest Utah.Kristopher G. Phillips & Gracia Allen - 2020 - In Claire Katz (ed.), Growing Up with Philosophy Camp. Lanham, MD 20706, USA: pp. 111-120.
    In this chapter we discuss the role of what we call "reasonableness" in a philosophy summer camp held at Southern Utah University. "Reasonableness," as we call it, is a more narrowly prescribed form of rationality - indeed one can be rational but unreasonable, but not the other way around. We discuss the importance and value of introducing philosophy to students before they get to college, and describe some of the challenges we face in introducing students in SW Utah to philosophy.
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  9. What Can Philosophy Learn From Improvisational Theater?Erica Preston-Roedder - 2020 - Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice 2:18-35.
    Can we learn about philosophical practice, and philosophical teaching, by examining an apparently very different discipline—improvisational theater? The short answer: yes! In particular, a consideration of improvisational theater reveals four values—play/playfulness, physicality, ensemble, and inclusivity—all of which have a role in philosophical practice and pedagogy. First, we can think of philosophy as a form of intellectual play, where theatrical techniques demonstrate that play can deepen the focus of our students. Second, philosophical teaching can be done in ways that productively utilize (...)
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  10. A possibilidade do tempo e a temporalidade dos possíveis na comunidade de investigação filosófica.Magda Costa Carvalho - 2019 - Revista Do NESEF 2 (8):62-76.
    Following Lévinas, for whom the Bergsonian defense of duration beyond time that is merely chronological corresponds to the release of terror of a world where novelty is impossible, this article proposes, in the field of philosophy for children, a thought exercise beyond what is known and mastered, that upsets the comfortable and habitual rhythms of the predictable and dislodges itself from naturally accepted ideas. Starting from the intersection of the Bergsonian concepts of possibility and temporality, we propose promoting collaborative, problematizing (...)
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  11. Finding Treasures: Is the Community of Philosophical Inquiry a Methodology?Magda Costa Carvalho & Walter Kohan - 2019 - Studies in Philosophy and Education 38 (3):275-289.
    In the world of Philosophy for Children, the word “method” is found frequently in its literature and in its practitioner’s handbooks. This paper focuses on the idea of community of philosophical inquiry as P4C’s methodological framework for educational purposes, and evaluates that framework and those purposes in light of the question, what does it mean to bring children and philosophy together, and what methodological framework, if any, is appropriate to that project? Our broader aim is to highlight a problem with (...)
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  12. Existentially Dope.Devon Johnson - 2019 - The Philosophers' Magazine 86:36-43.
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  13. The Kids Are Alright: Philosophical Dialogue and the Utah Lyceum.Kristopher G. Phillips - 2019 - Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice 1:42-57.
    This paper serves as a call to philosophers both to create more precollege philosophy programs, and to push back against the instrumentalization of the value of philosophy. I do not intend to defend the intrinsic value of philosophy in this paper, though in an indirect way I will offer a defense of the value of precollege philosophy. I discuss the history, theory and practice behind the Utah Lyceum, a precollege philosophy summer camp program I helped create in rural Utah. I (...)
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  14. Teaching Critical Thinking and Metacognitive Skills Through Philosophical Enquiry. A Practitioner's Report on Experiments in the Classroom.Emma Worley & Peter Worley - 2019 - Childhood and Philosophy 15.
    Although expert consensus states that critical thinking (CT) is essential to enquiry, it doesn’t necessarily follow that by practicing enquiry children are developing CT skills. Philosophy with children programmes around the world aim to develop CT dispositions and skills through a community of enquiry, and this study compared the impact of the explicit teaching of CT skills during an enquiry, to The Philosophy Foundation's philosophical enquiry (PhiE) method alone (which had no explicit teaching of CT skills). Philosophy with children is (...)
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  15. Philosophical Thinking in Childhood.Jana Mohr Lone - 2018 - In Anca Gheaus, Gideon Calder & Jurgen De Wispelaere (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of The Philosophy of Childhood and Children. London, UK: pp. 53-63.
    Children are capable of contributing unique insights to philosophy, making their involvement in philosophical conversations important for them as well as for adults and the discipline in general. The chapter begins by examining whether children are capable of engaging in philosophical inquiry at all, which leads to an analysis of the related issue of what it means to do philosophy. The chapter then explores children’s philosophical thinking and in particular children’s epistemic openness, and considers the value of philosophy for children, (...)
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  16. The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children.Maughn Rollins Gregory, Joanna Haynes & Karin Murris (eds.) - 2017 - London, UK: Routledge.
    This rich and diverse collection offers a range of perspectives and practices of Philosophy for Children (P4C). P4C has become a significant educational and philosophical movement with growing impact on schools and educational policy. Its community of inquiry pedagogy has been taken up in community, adult, higher, further and informal educational settings around the world. The internationally sourced chapters offer research findings as well as insights into debates provoked by bringing children’s voices into moral and political arenas and to philosophy (...)
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  17. Children, Intuitive Knowledge and Philosophy.Maria daVenza Tillmanns - 2017 - Philosophy Now 119:20-23.
    This paper explores the notion that children have a knowledge of the world of their own – an intuitive knowledge. Being fully immersed in the world as adults are, they too have a knowledge of the world. In contrast to adults, who have developed a cognitive knowledge of the world, children still depend on their intuitive knowledge. Children certainly have a strong grasp of the world they live in; it’s just not dependent on cognitive knowledge. In my paper I compare (...)
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  18. Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialog in K-12 Classrooms.Jana Mohr Lone & Michael D. Burroughs - 2016 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
    Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialog in K-12 Classrooms is a textbook in the fields of pre-college philosophy and philosophy of education, intended for philosophers and philosophy students, K-12 classroom teachers, administrators and educators, policymakers, and pre-college practitioners of all kinds.
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  19. Philosophy, Academic Philosophy, and Philosophy for Children.Michael Lacewing - 2015 - The Philosophers' Magazine 69:90-97.
    A Platonic dialogue, an undergraduate lecture, an enquiry in philosophy for children (P4C): Are all three activities "philosophy"? Is there a difference between doing philosophy and studying philosophy? What is the importance of philosophy in each guise, and how might the different guises relate to the aims of "teaching" philosophy? Drawing on the work of Bernard Williams, I suggest that doing philosophy involves making sense of our lives, and that this requires a wider knowledge base than traditionally taught in academic (...)
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  20. Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools.Jana Mohr Lone & Michael D. Burroughs - 2015 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
    Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools is intended for philosophers and philosophy students, precollege classroom teachers, administrators and educators, policymakers, and pre-college practitioners of all kinds. This text book offers a wealth of practical resources and lesson plans for use in precollege classrooms, as well as consideration of many of the broader educational, social, and political topics in the field.
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  21. Philosophy and Childhood.Tim Sprod - 2014 - Journal of Philosophy in Schools 1 (1):147-156.
    The following paper was written in 1999, as the opening speech at the Hobart FAPCA National Conference. I was, at the time, Chair of FAPCA. The keynote speaker at the conference was Professor Gareth Matthews from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and author of, among other books, The Philosophy of Childhood. As the paper was written as a speech, and not as an academic article, I did not cite all the points made in full academic mode. Rather, for publication (...)
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  22. We Made Progress: Collective Epistemic Progress in Dialogue Without Consensus.Clinton Golding - 2013 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 47 (3):423-440.
    Class discussions about ethical, social, philosophical and other controversial issues frequently result in disagreement. This leaves a problem: has there been any progress? This article introduces and analyses the concept ‘collective epistemic progress’ in order to resolve this problem. The analysis results in four main ways of understanding, guiding and judging collective epistemic progress in the face of seemingly irreconcilable differences. Although it might seem plausible to analyse and judge collective epistemic progress by the increasing vigour of the dialogue community, (...)
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  23. Philosophical Sensitivity.Jana Mohr Lone - 2013 - Metaphilosophy 44 (1-2):171-186.
    Although much has been written about the nature of philosophy and how the discipline can be defined, little attention has been paid to the ways we develop the facility to reflect philosophically or why cultivating this ability is valuable. This article develops a conception of “philosophical sensitivity,” a perceptual capacity that facilitates our awareness of the philosophical dimension of experience. Based in part on Aristotle's notion of a moral perceptual capacity, philosophical sensitivity starts with most people's natural inclinations as children (...)
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  24. Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People.Jana Mohr Lone & Roberta Israeloff (eds.) - 2012 - Cambridge Scholars Press.
    Are children natural philosophers? They are curious about the mysteries of the human experience and about questions such as the meaning and purpose of being alive and whether we can know anything at all. Pre-college philosophy takes as a starting point young people's inherent interest in large questions about the human condition. Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People seeks to illuminate the ways in which philosophy can strengthen and deepen pre-college education.
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  25. "That's a Better Idea!" Philosophical Progress for Philosophy for Children.Clinton Golding - 2009 - Childhood and Philosophy 5 (10):223-269.
    Philosophy for Children is an important educational programme that engages children in philosophical inquiry as the means for them to make sense of the world. A key to its success is that students make progress in their attempts to make sense of the world or, more colloquially, they develop better ideas. Although philosophical progress is essential to the value of Philosophy for Children, there is little written on this concept and what is written tends to be merely suggestive. The result (...)
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  26. Gilles Deleuze: Enfants Et Devenir-Enfance.Walter Kohan - 2006 - Childhood and Philosophy 2 (3):11-27.
    This paper consists of some fragments from the writings of Gilles Deleuze that concern childhood. The goal here is not to illustrate a whole philosophical doctrine of childhood, but to present and make accessible to the readers some texts that may inspire them. Deleuze’s interest in childhood took many forms. He published a book for children with Jacqueline Duhême. Of course, this book was not written especially for children: it was composed of already-published texts from his earlier works. We also (...)
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  27. Proceedings Aktueel Filosoferen, 15e Nederlands-Vlaams Annual Philosophy Conference.van Dooren en Hoff (ed.) - 1993
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  28. Conceiving Childhood: "Child Animism".Gareth B. Matthews - 1982 - Noûs 16 (1):29-37.
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