Philosophy for Children, Misc

Hundreds of short, one sentence descriptions of what famous philosophers say philosophy is or is about. Useful for children, pupils, interested in philosophy.

In this paper, we describe technological advances for supporting persons with aphasia in philosophical dialogues about personally relevant and contestable questions. A computer game-based application for iPads is developed and researched through Living Lab inspired workshops in order to promote the target group’s communicative participation during group argumentation. We outline some central parts of the background theory of the application and some of its main features, which are related to needs of the target group. Methodological issues connected to the design (...) and use of Living Labs with persons with aphasia are discussed. We describe a few problems with researching development of communicative participation during group argumentation using an app assisted intervention for the target group and suggest some possible solutions. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the world-famous program for the development of thinking skills "Philosophy for Children" by Matthew Lipman, which was formed in the early 1970s. The program is outstanding in that it develops three types of thinking – critical, creative and caring. The article gives a brief overview of the history of the program and its formation. In particular, the article notes that Matthew Lipman, as a professor at Columbia University, realized that students are not able to formulate (...) their own judgments and ask questions. He saw the root of the problem in school education, which does not develop the skills of critical thinking. According to Lipman, logic is at the heart of the program which teaches these skills. He saw introducing the study of logic in the school curriculum as his task. To make it effective and interesting, Lipman wrote the philosophical novel Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery, which was build around the exploration of Aristotle's logic. The success of an educational experiment with reading this novel at a school in Montclair in 1970 over a period of six months inspired Lipman to continue writing texts for children of all ages and to develop manuals for teachers. Lipman's educational project began to bring together fellow educators, the first of whom was Anne-Margaret Sharp. Together with her, in 1974 Lipman founded the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children. The article notes which scientists influenced the formation of Lipman's theoretical views. The second part of the article describes the step-by-step plan of the lessons and explains in detail the importance of each of its elements. Emphasis is placed on the role of the facilitator and the qualities he should possess. The context of positioning critical thinking in contemporary education in Ukraine is also analyzed. (shrink)

In Why We Are in Need of Tails, we learn how we all used to have tails that helped us connect to each other and the world around us. When we lost our tails, we also lost our most nuanced way of communicating, so the story goes. Best friends Huk and Tuk explore ways we can compensate for this loss. They discover that by telling stories — tales — and by discussing the intriguing questions they raise, we're able to create (...) a deeper understanding of ourselves, each other and the world we live in. Although Huk and Tuk's tales seem simple at first, the questions they raise are nuanced and complex, making them rewarding for adults and children to ponder together. Now, in Part III, the latest in the Why We Are in Need of Tales series, Huk and Tuk gain an understanding of the different choices we make in different situations — and how important choices can be. And they learn that in order to make careful choices, we have to keep our eyes wide open. (shrink)

Persons with aphasia suffer from a loss of communication ability as a consequence of a brain injury. A small strand of research indicates effec- tiveness of dialogic interventions for communication development for persons with aphasia, but a vast amount of research studies shows its effectiveness for other target groups. In this paper, we describe the main parts of the hitherto technological development of an application named Dialogica that is (i) aimed at facilitating increased communicative participation in dialogic settings for persons (...) with aphasia and other communication disorders, (ii) based on comput- er game technology as well as on theory in dialogic education and argumenta- tion theory, and (iii) designed for mobile devices with larger screens. (shrink)

Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher brings together groundbreaking essays by renowned American philosopher Gareth B. Matthews in three fields he helped to initiate: philosophy in children’s literature, philosophy for children, and philosophy of childhood. In addition, contemporary scholars critically assess Matthews’ pioneering efforts and his legacy. Matthews (1929-2011) was a specialist in ancient and medieval philosophy who had conversations with young children, discovering that they delight in philosophical puzzlement and that their philosophical thinking often enriched his own understanding. Those (...) conversations became the impetus for a substantial component of Matthews’ scholarship, from which this book features essays spanning the length of his career. Contemporary contributors to the book critically evaluate Matthews’ scholarship, showing where he broke new ground and identifying developments and debates in the fields he helped to initiate. They take up pressing challenges, including biased idealizations of childhood in children’s literature; the tensions between teaching philosophy to, and doing philosophy with young people; the merits of theorizing childhood without theorizing children; and how professional philosophy at once desires and resists a return to childhood. This second volume in the Philosophy for Children Founders series is an important resource for philosophers, educators, and anyone interested in children’s philosophical thinking, developmental psychology, what it means to philosophize with children, the nature of childhood, and how children’s literature goes philosophical. It will guide and inspire those who share Matthews’ conviction that the impulse to philosophize begins in early childhood. (shrink)

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 (...) such our text is divided into different sections, in each of which we explore the implications of allowing ourselves to be transformed in our practice by recognition of the child’s voice; the problematization of conventional educational programmatics for one, and the opening of new pedagogical pathways, which recognize childhood as a moving force of thinking, as opposed to an object of study and manipulation. To this end, we engage several interlocutors from different fields--literature, philosophy, education, "philosophy for children", and from chronological children themselves. We conclude by proposing, based on an encounter with the work of H. Cisoux and J. Derrida, that we think about the relations between deconstruction and childhood in such a way that our affirmation of childhood leads to a transformation of the text itself—not only in its content but in its form. As such, we present the reader with a fundamentally childlike text. (shrink)

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 (...) la palabra. Nosotros ya (no) la tenemos… (¡hipo!). (shrink)

This study aims to (1) to describe moral messages that are packaged in metaphors in international children's narrative, (2) to analyze moral messages that are packaged in metaphors in international children's narrative, and (3) to encode the metaphors used in international children's narrative. This research uses theme analysis. The research data in this study are the form of phrases, clauses, and sentences that contain moral messages. The data source of this research is children's narrative on the internet. This research produces (...) findings that metaphors used to package moral messages in children's films consist of nine forms, namely 1) animal metaphors (2) everyday metaphors,(3) situation metaphors, (4) natural metaphors, (5) symbolic metaphors, (6) association metaphor, (7) diverse metaphor, (8) environment metaphor and (9) landscape metaphor. The conclusion of this study is the moral message for learning materials in elementary schools delivered in the form of children's narrative that are packaged in the form of metaphors. (shrink)

Apresentamos um trabalho composto por um conjunto de reflexões nascidas em tempos e espaços distintos. A maior parte dos capítulos retoma textos já publicados, mas que foram repensados e reescritos a partir do que hoje vemos. Outros só agora se tornam dia. Paralelamente à escolha dos textos, à depuração da escrita e ao afinamento da redação, um outro exercício emergiu: pensar cada capítulo como evento de um processo cujo dinamismo próprio não se deixa fixar. Os textos mostraram-se, então, como inscrições (...) provisórias, fotografias que captaram certos contornos de uma continuidade, formas instantâneas fotografadas numa transição permanente. O mesmo é dizer que, tendo nascido em tempos distintos e com espaços próprios, os textos são ações em processo, rastos de uma mudança: o estar-em-viagem que foi emergindo. (shrink)

In this paper we present an empirical case study into the effects of attending a philosophy conference on social skill development in 15- to 18-year-old students. We focus on the impact that the conference had on their communication skills, sociability, cooperation and teamwork skills, self-confidence, determination, social responsibility, and empathy. These are social skills previously studied in 2017 by Siddiqui et al. who found student development in these areas as a result of Philosophy for Children (P4C) sessions in primary schools. (...) In this paper, we ask whether our conference—Pursuit of Knowledge—brought about comparable results. Overall, attendees reported that they felt that the conference had improved their communication skills, sociability, cooperation and teamwork, self-confidence, determination, social responsibility and empathy. We conclude that further research into the potential of models of philosophy akin to the model employed by the conference should be conducted. We discuss the potential of this model as a means of educating for social skills. (shrink)

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.

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 (...) physicality in order to maintain focus or allow students to express their ideas through their bodies. Third, philosophical practice, and teaching, should aim to establish ensemble, which can be understood as a social configuration which establishes equality in terms of mutual dependence and responsiveness. Finally, inclusivity in the philosophical classroom can be heightened through the use of appropriately adapted improvisational techniques. In addition to laying the conceptual groundwork to understand the connection between improvisational theater and philosophy, this essay includes a number of specific exercises for instructors who wish to introduce these techniques to the classroom. (shrink)

Using picture books as a means of initiating philosophical discussions with younger children is an idea that has occurred to a number of people involved in P4C/Philosophy in Schools in various parts of the world. Some went on to develop support materials to encourage teachers to go beyond reading picture books to/with their classes to drawing the students into a community of philosophical inquiry. Early examples include Karin Murris, Chris de Haan and colleagues, and myself in Australia, and Tom Wartenberg (...) in the USA. As well as Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp, Tom’s work drew on the writings of Gareth Matthews, both in his 1980 book 'Philosophy and the Young Child', and his regular columns on the philosophy in picture books in the journal 'Thinking'. (shrink)

Que diriez-vous d’une autre prise sur les riches et célèbres? Tout d’abord l’évidence - les romans de Harry Potter sont la superstition primitive qui encourage les enfants à croire en la fantaisie plutôt que d’assumer la responsabilité du monde - la norme bien sûr. JKR est tout aussi désemparé sur elle-même et le monde que la plupart des gens, mais environ200 fois plus destructeur que l’Américain moyen et environ 800 fois plus que le Chinois moyen. Elle a été responsable de (...) la destruction de peut-être 30.000 hectares de forêt pour produire ces romans trash et toute l’érosion qui s’ensuit (pas trivial car il est au moins 6 et peut-être 12 tonnes / an de sol dans l’océan pour tout le monde sur terre ou peut-être 100 tonnes par Américain, et donc environ 5000 tonnes par an pour les livres de Rowling et films et ses 3 enfants). La terre perd au moins 1% de sa terre maximale chaque année, de sorte qu’il approche de 2100, la plupart de sa capacité de culture alimentaire aura disparu. Ensuite, il ya l’énorme quantité de carburant brûlé et les déchets faits pour faire et distribuer les livres et les films, poupées en plastique, etc. Elle montre son manque de responsabilité sociale en produisant des enfants plutôt que d’utiliser ses millions pour encourager la planification familiale ou acheter la forêt tropicale, et en promouvant la stupidité libérale conventionnelle de la suprématie du 3e monde qui détruit la Grande-Bretagne, l’Amérique, le monde et l’avenir de son descendant. Bien sûr, elle n’est pas si différente des 7 autres. 8 milliards désemparés - juste plus bruyant et plus destructeur. C’est le problème de déjeuner gratuit bref grand. La foule ne peut tout simplement pas voir qu’il n’y a pas une telle chose comme aider une personne sans nuire à d’autres. Les droits ou privilèges accordés aux nouveaux arrivants dans un monde surpeuplé ne peuvent que s’affaiblir dans ceux des autres. Malgré les catastrophes écologiques massives qui se produisent partout tous les jours, ils ne peuvent pas les épingler à la maternité effrénée de "la diversité", qui explique la majeure partie de l’augmentation de la population du siècle dernier et tout cela dans celui-ci. Ils manquent d’une combinaison d’intelligence, d’éducation, d’expérience et de santé mentale nécessaires pour extrapoler les assauts quotidiens sur les ressources et le fonctionnement de la société à l’effondrement éventuel de la civilisation industrielle. Chaque repas, chaque voyage en voiture ou en bus, chaque paire de chaussures est un autre clou dans le cercueil de la terre. Il n’a probablement jamais traversé son esprit qu’un siège dans un avion de Londres à San Francisco produit environ une tonne de carbone qui fond environ 3 mètres carrés de glace de mer et comme l’un des surprivileged, elle a probablement volé des centaines de ces vols. Non seulement les riches et les célèbres, mais presque n’importe quelle personnalité publique du tout, y compris pratiquement tous les enseignants, sont poussés à être politiquement corrects, ce qui dans les démocraties occidentales, signifie maintenant social-démocrate (néomarxiste, c’est-à-dire communiste dilué) suprémacistes du tiers monde travaillant pour la destruction de leurs propres sociétés et de leurs propres descendants. Ainsi, ceux dont le manque d’éducation, d’expérience, d’intelligence (et de bon sens de base), qui devrait leur interdire de faire des déclarations publiques du tout, domine totalement tous les médias, créant l’impression que l’intelligent et civilisé doit favoriser la démocratie, la diversité et l’égalité, alors que la vérité est que ce sont les problèmes et non les solutions, et qu’ils sont eux-mêmes les principaux ennemis de la civilisation. Voir mon Suicide by Democracy 4th ed (2020). (shrink)

Аннотация Статья представляет собой более подробное рассмотрение тех проблем, которые были на- мечены в первой части данного исследования «Применение проприоцепции мышления в фи- лософствовании с детьми» («Социум и власть», 2019, № 4). На этот раз автор уделяет внимание характеристике мышления как процесса в пра- ктике философствования с детьми, обосновы- вая эффективность данной практики, которая формирует осознанность действий и развивает эмоциональный интеллект. Автор противо- поставляет статичное абстрактное мышление динамике неявного конкретного мыслительного процесса. Философствование с детьми в диало- говой форме всецело вовлекает (...) в мыслитель- ный процесс, фокусируется на самом мышлении, которое постоянно развивается с учетом разных точек зрения, усложняется и на эмоциональном уровне углубляет понимание. (shrink)

Philosophy in schools in Australia dates back to the 1980s and is rooted in the Philosophy for Children curriculum and pedagogy. Seeing potential for educational change, Australian advocates were quick to develop new classroom resources and innovative programs that have proved influential in educational practice throughout Australia and internationally. Behind their contributions lie key philosophical and educational discussions and controversies which have shaped attempts to introduce philosophy in schools and embed it in state and national curricula. -/- Drawing together a (...) wide range of eminent scholars and practitioners in the field of educational philosophy, this anthology, the first of its kind, provides not only a historical narrative, but an opportunity to reflect on the insights and experiences of the authors that have made history. The collection is divided into three parts. The overarching theme of Part I is the early years of Philosophy for Children in Australia and how they informed the course that the ‘philosophy in schools movement’ would take. Part II focuses on the events and debates surrounding the development and production of new materials, including arguments for and against the suitability of the original Philosophy for Children curriculum. In Part III, key developments relating to teaching philosophy in schools are analysed. -/- This collection of diverse views, critical appraisals, and different perspectives of historical currents is intended to stimulate thought-provoking questions about theory and practice, and to increase general awareness both nationally and internationally of philosophy in schools in Australia. It is also intended to encourage readers to identify emerging ideas and develop strategies for implementation. (shrink)

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 (...) dialogue in an educational setting. We do so by dividing our reflection into two lines of thought, which we formulate as guiding questions: Is time possible in the community of philosophical inquiry? Is there time for the possible in the community of philosophical inquiry? Using the Bergsonian notions of time and possible like photographic lenses through which light is captured, we are interested in problematizing the practice of philosophical dialogue with children, specifically the preparation and the development of activities in a community of philosophical inquiry. (shrink)

After almost a decade of study, research, and dissemination in the field of philosophy for children (p4c), the University of the Azores has created a Master’s degree in Philosophy for Children. While it may appear to be just another university course of study in the academic field of philosophy, we believe that this Master’s is a case study in its own right, as it has allowed us to think about what p4c is capable of when it takes over the university. (...) Not only has the Master’s degree helped shape p4c, but p4c has itself driven the development of the Master’s. Through this process, a different way of existing “within the university” emerges, revealing points worthy of attention that conventional academia does not always value. This article reflects on some of the ideas relating to this process and, without any pretension of establishing rules or claiming to be a finished product, offers some considerations that in our view constitute a turning point for the way people exist within the university. After experiencing a Master’s based upon p4c, neither the university nor philosophy itself can be understood in the same way as before. What is it about p4c, then, that makes it capable of transforming whatever it touches? (shrink)

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 (...) regards to the concept of method in P4C, and to question the consequences of that concept in the practice of philosophical dialogue with children. To better situate the concept of method within P4C, we will identify two different historical understandings—represented by Rene Descartes and Hans Georg Gadamer—of the concept, and suggest new possibilities for understanding philosophical practice with children in light of their difference. (shrink)

In this article, I propose to integrate indigenous knowledges in the Philosophy for/with Children theory and practice. I make the claim that it is possible to treat indigenous knowledges, not only as topics for philosophical dialogues with children but as presuppositions of the philosophical activity itself within the Community of Inquiry. Such integration is important for at least three (3) reasons: First, recognizing indigenous ways of thinking and seeing the world informs us of other non-dominant forms of knowledges, methods to (...) produce knowledge and criteria to determine knowledge. Second, the dominance of western standards of producing and determining knowledge, especially in non-western societies, needs to be reduced, balanced and informed by local knowledges and experiences. And third, indigenous knowledges reinforce a culturally responsive P4wC that responds to the challenges arising in multicultural and ethnically diverse classrooms. There are two (2) possible intersections where such integration may take place, namely: a) Epistemology, where I claim that the integration of a “presentational epistemology” immanent in indigenous patterns of thinking provides a counterweight to Lipman’s strong adherence to analytic-representational epistemology, and b) Pedagogy, which takes shape in an “indigenized” Community of Inquiry that highlights the values of interconnectedness, situatedness and relationality. (shrink)

O ensino de filosofia é hoje feito de diversas formas (práticas), sendo as três principais (ou bases), a histórica, a temática e a criação conceitual. No entanto parece muito mais plausível e até saudável uma combinação entre duas destas formas, ou até as três, mas isto não elimina a problemática das perguntas: "qual é a melhor forma?", ou "qual é a mais certa?" ou ainda "qual é a mais eficaz ou a mais eficiente?", na medida em que estas combinações em (...) si geram mais formas e as perguntas persistem. Uma vez que estas questões ainda não tem uma resposta, e estão longe de ter algum consenso, o ensino de filosofia passa a ser um problema filosófico em si, e é neste cenário que Alejandro Cerletti, introduz seu livro "O ensino de filosofia como problema filosófico". A obra de fato não responde estas perguntas, e não creio ser objetivo do autor responde-las, mas como Walter Kohan escreve na capa interna da edição brasileira de 2009, "pode constituir-se numa ferramenta importante para que cada professor de filosofia possa pensar-se em relação à sua prática." (CERLETTI, 2009). Eu acrescentaria, que muito da discussão aqui, pode ser aplicada a outras práticas disciplinares. (shrink)

Annually, more than ten million people in all age groups in the world experience an acquired brain injury, which is a brain injury caused after birth by external forces or certain internal factors. Brain injury survivors are often left with long-term impairments in cognitive, social, or emotional functioning. Despite a promising outset, research on the effectiveness of philosophical dialogues as an educational method for persons with ABI to increase their cognitive, social, and emotional functioning has, to our knowledge, been virtually (...) non-existent. The present research project targets this and uses a pretest-posttest and mixed-method triangulation design and attempts to measure effects of two small-scale interventions carried out in the northern part of Sweden. In this text, the project’s research design, data production, and data processing are described. (shrink)

O Programa de Filosofia para Crianças de Matthew Lipman e Ann Margaret Sharp tem pouco mais de 40 anos e à sua criação de imediato se sucederam a difusão e a adaptação em diversos contextos geográficos e culturais. Quer isto dizer que a história da Filosofia para Crianças, sobretudo nas últimas décadas, tem consistido numa marcha, mais ou menos vertiginosa, de inovação e renovação. E nem sempre este ritmo de rápida disseminação se tem mostrado compatível com a sedimentação de reflexões (...) apuradas sobre as diferentes dimensões e problemáticas que a prática coloca. A formação dos facilitadores de sessões de Filosofia para Crianças, de acordo com o modelo da comunidade de investigação filosófica de Lipman e Sharp, é uma das dimensões deste projeto pioneiro que aguardam um debate de maior desenvolvimento. A presente reflexão pretende contribuir para essa discussão, apresentando de forma concisa algumas posições que consideramos relevantes para a compreensão do que está em causa. Não temos a pretensão de assumir a forma acabada de um cânone, mas de justificar opções que nos parecem decisivas no presente contexto de implementação da Filosofia para Crianças em Portugal. Esperamos, assim, contribuir para que se possa gerar uma comunidade alargada de diálogo sobre este tópico. (shrink)

This work aims to consider philosophically the issue of the method in philosophical practices with children. It analyzes some influences received by the creators of Philosophy for Children, Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, like the pragmatism of J. Dewey. It describes the meanings of three similar expressions in Lipman's work: methodical, methodological and method. It offers some criticisms of method: Hans-Georg Gadamer, but especially Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. Finally, he questions the need of a method for doing philosophy (...) with children or, more broadly, for thinking childishly in education. -/- Este trabajo tiene como objetivo pensar filosóficamente el tema del método en las prácticas filosóficas con niñas y niños. Analiza algunas influencias recibidas por los creadores de Filosofía para Niños, Matthew Lipman y Ann Margaret Sharp, como el pragmatismo de J. Dewey. Describe los significados de tres expresiones similares en el trabajo de Lipman: metódico, metodológico y metodológico. Ofrece algunas críticas del método: Hans-Georg Gadamer, pero especialmente Henri Bergson y Gilles Deleuze. Finalmente, cuestiona la necesidad de un método para hacer filosofía con niñas y niños o, más ampliamente, para pensar infantilmente en educación. -/- Este trabalho busca pensar filosoficamente a questão do método nas práticas filosóficas com crianças. Analisa algumas influencias recebidas pelos criadores da Filosofia para Crianças, Matthew Lipman e Ann Margaret Sharp, como o pragmatismo de J. Dewey. Descreve os sentidos de três expressões afins na obra de Lipman: metódico, metodologia e método. Oferece algumas críticas a leituras do método: Hans-Georg Gadamer, mas sobretudo Henri Bergson e Gilles Deleuze. Finalmente, problematiza a necessidade de um método para fazer filosofia com crianças ou, de um modo mais geral, para pensar infantilmente na educação. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to connect the Brazilian Paulo Freire’s well known educational thinking with the “philosophy for children” movement. It considers the relationship between the creator of philosophy for children, Matthew Lipman and Freire through different attempts to establish a relationship between these two educators. The paper shows that the relationship between them is not as close as many supporters of P4C have claimed, especially in Latin America. It also considers the context of Educational Policies in our time (...) and why Freire’s understanding of the politics of education makes it impossible to be Freirean and at the same time be neutral or favorable to the actual status quo. Finally, after presenting Lipman’s understanding of the relationship between philosophy, education and democracy and their connection to capitalism, it proposes ways to begin the political path of philosophizing with children inspired by Paulo Freire’s educational thinking. As a result, a more politically committed path to doing philosophy with children is offered. (shrink)

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, (...) both instrumental and intrinsic. The ways that the failure to listen, solely on the basis of age, to children’s ideas and questions is argued to constitute a form of epistemic injustice, and the chapter concludes by claiming that paying attention to children’s philosophical engagement can help raise awareness about what a philosophical approach can offer to our combined thinking about ethics, social and political problems, and other important issues. (shrink)

The article regards the age peculiarities of the development of personality’s self-consciousness in youth. -/- The conducted theoretical analysis and empirical research contribute to the definition of the following features of the formation of personality self-consciousness in youth: -/- – strengthening the integrative tendency in this process, which leads to an increase in the level of cognitive complexity, differentiation, integrity, and hierarchy of the “Self-image”, as well as the emergence of a holistic, integrated “I”; -/- – the ability of self-awareness (...) as the highest form of self-knowledge, due to the higher level of development of intelligence and the individuals thinking; -/- – increase of the level of awareness of the personality of their own experiences, self-attitude, and selfesteem, which contributes to the growth of interest in his/her “I”; -/- – actualization of the process of development of personal and social self-identity (self-determination) of youth; -/- – intensification of formation of the system of value orientations as a psychological basis for the development of personality’s self-consciousness; -/- – an ability to make informed decisions in various spheres of life (social, professional, personal, etc.), which is the evidence of becoming a socially mature person; -/- – psychological mechanisms for the development of the youth’s self-consciousness is self-reflection, identification, and separation; -/- – a pivotal object of self-reflection is the relationship with significant others and their own life position; the object of identification presents socially valuable qualities of others, which promotes the assimilation of social norms; due to separation of the acquired norms of behavior, value orientations and motives become individualized. -/- The identified features are important for the psychological and pedagogical theory and practice. (shrink)

The compass we use to navigate life needs to be cultivated from an early age. My sense is that the arts, including Plato’s dialogues cultivate our navigational sense. It does not tell us rationally what is good or what is bad. It is not that simple. Remember, the stars we sail by, are not fixed, either. So we need to develop a sense for what may be right or not in any particular situation. We may have a general sense, but (...) need to learn how to apply this general sense to specific situations, which are unique. In every new situation we have to figure out what is the right thing to do. And this may be different for different people as well. Too often we look for a one-fits-all solution, including our moral sense of right and wrong. And this is where we so often end up resorting to a violent “solution,” just to end it all. While we may have acquired so many technological advancements in our modern world, on the level of understanding how to navigate the world we may have regressed even, now that we can increasingly rely of highly technically advanced weapons. Again, violence seems to bear the only “solution.” -/- Yet, with our compass intact, we might be better able to recognize the red flags when we see them in real life and not find ways to rationalize, justify or ignore the reality right before our eyes. When we recognize them early, they can be handled so much easier and better. Molehills are less difficult than mountains. And to get rid of a mountain, you may just have to blow it up, using violence... (shrink)

We offer an overview of the development and production of the diverse range of Australian P4C literature since the introduction of philosophy in schools in the early 1980s. The events and debates surrounding this literature can be viewed as an historical narrative that highlights different philosophical, educational, and strategic positions on the role of curriculum material and resources in the philosophy classroom. We argue that if we place children’s literature and purpose-written materials in opposition to one another, we could be (...) missing valuable opportunities to develop further what might be considered a new genre in educational literature. (shrink)

We argue for peace education as a process of improving the quality of everyday relationships. This is vital, as children bring their habits formed largely by social and political institutions such as the family, religion, law, cultural mores, to the classroom (Splitter, 1993; Furlong & Morrison, 2000) and vice versa. It is inevitable that the classroom habitat, as a microcosm of the community in which it is situated, will perpetuate the epistemic practices and injustices of that community, manifested in attitudes, (...) beliefs, behaviours and actions that can limit the child’s ability to learn. The educational task then, is to create opportunities for children to problematize the very environment they inhabit. To this end, our concern is for peace education aimed at addressing epistemic violence; a form of harm brought about by a particular rationality of domination. -/- The classroom community of inquiry, initially developed by Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp as the methodology for the Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach to education (Lipman & Sharp, 1978; Lipman, Sharp & Oscanyan, 1980), is often viewed as a solution to inequality in the classroom—an intellectually safe environment which allows students to explore, practice and internalize good reasoning through philosophy so that they can make school relevant to their lives. Traditionally, the teacher’s role is to take a ‘neutral stance’ in discussion during the conduct of a community of inquiry. However, we argue that it is misplaced to assume that the community of inquiry is a safe intellectual environment in which the teacher as co-inquirer also facilitates the discussion procedurally, letting the argument lead, which Lipman took as the guiding principle for his process of inquiry. For, as Paulo Freire (1987) put it: -/- ... the dominant ideology makes its presence in the classroom partly felt by trying to convince the teacher that he or she must be neutral in order to respect the student. This kind of neutrality is a false respect for students. On the contrary, the more I say nothing about agreeing or not agreeing out of respect for the others, the more I am leaving the dominant ideology in peace! (p. 174). -/- Teachers must be aware of the possibility of epistemic violence to be able to detect and disrupt it, in order to facilitate a peaceful inquiry. We do not consider peace in the negative, as the absence of conflict, but in the positive as the capacity to respond skilfully to conflict as a way of life. Therefore, we concentrate on peace education that prepares students to turn conflict into inquiry, rather than peace education as values education or character education that instils values of ‘fraternity and non-violence’ (Gregory, 2004, p. 277). The community of inquiry provides such a framework, however, we argue that it must be facilitated in a way that mitigates the effects of epistemic violence by creating an educational habitat in which multiple ways of knowing can flourish. (shrink)

Gert Biesta claims that education involves introducing young people to a pathway from what they want to what it is good for them to want, offering the conditions for children to cross from the former to the latter. This shift from a realm of individual desires to the realm of the desirable constitutes a “de-centered existence”. Since there is an undeniable normative dimension in this view, it seemed important to search for the guiding values or principles that frames it. In (...) his ICPIC talk, G. Biesta refers to the Levinasian concept of responsibility, identifying individual desires (children’s desires) with the egological way of existence. In his 2014’s book, The beautiful risk of education, Biesta mentions the concept of educational wisdom (educators’ wisdom), through an Aristotelian standpoint. In either perspective, the author grants normative privileges to adults, claiming that, in an educational environment, adults have the responsibility to be educators and not learners. We follow from here to question Biesta’s statement of education as a risk, since if there are evaluative standards according to which educators can orient their practices, as well as students behaviors (either the responsibility in face of the Other or the ability to make good and wise judgments), how can one still talk about a risk in education? We end up our commentary by looking for deeper meanings for the concept of risk in education. (shrink)

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 (...) and the broader educational issues this raises, for example: historical perspectives on the field; democratic participation and epistemic, pedagogical and political relationships; philosophy as a subject and philosophy as a practice; philosophical teaching across the curriculum; embodied enquiry, emotions and space; knowledge, truth and philosophical progress; resources and texts for philosophical inquiry; ethos and values of P4C practice and research. The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children will spark new discussions and identify emerging questions and themes in this diverse and controversial field. It is an accessible, engaging and provocative read for all students, researchers, academics and educators who have an interest in Philosophy for Children, its educational philosophy and its pedagogy. (shrink)

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.

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.

This study explored the impact of facilitating collaborative philosophical inquiry, in the tradition of “Philosophy for Children,” on connectedness pedagogies. The study employed an experimental design that included 59 primary teachers in 2 groups. The experimental group received an intervention that comprised training in CPI and the comparison group received training in Thinking Tools, a subset of the CPI training. Lessons were coded on four variables of connectedness pedagogies, across the two groups, at three time-points. Teacher interviews were conducted to (...) gather participants’ perspectives. Between-groups analysis of variance on particular measures of pedagogy revealed that CPI significantly broadened teachers’ pedagogical repertoires, in ways that included drawing on students’ background knowledge and preparing a problem-based curriculum which connects students to the world beyond the classroom. (shrink)

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 (...) to reflect about life's fundamental mysteries; when this capacity is cultivated with training over time, our attentiveness to the philosophical features of ordinary life becomes almost second nature. In much the same way an aesthetically sensitive person notices certain qualities of experience not readily perceptible by others, philosophical sensitivity involves the development of a particular way of seeing the world. (shrink)

Many parents welcome the idea of being able to talk with their children about life's big questions, but are unsure where to begin. In The Philosophical Child, Mohr Lone offers parents easy ways to introduce philosophical questions to their children and to gently help them explore significant issues.

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.

This book seeks to join the ongoing, interdisciplinary approach to children’s literature by means of sustained readings of individual texts by means of important works in the history of philosophy. Its inclusion of authors from both various departments—philosophy, literature, religion, and education—and various countries is an attempt to show how traditional boundaries between disciplines might become more permeable and how philosophy offers important insights to this interdisciplinary, critical conversation.

As conceived by founders Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, Philosophy for Children is a humanistic practice with roots in the Hellenistic tradition of philosophy as a way of life given to the search for meaning, in American pragmatism with its emphasis on qualitative experience, collaborative inquiry and democratic society, and in American and Soviet social learning theory. The programme has attracted overlapping and conflicting criticism from religious and social conservatives who don't want children to question traditional values, from educational (...) psychologists who believe certain kinds of thinking are beyond children of certain ages, from philosophers who define their discipline as theoretical and exegetical, from critical theorists who see the programme as politically compliant, and from postmodernists who see it as scientistic and imperialist. The paper is written as a dialogue in order to illustrate the complex interactions among these normative positions. Rather than respond to particular criticisms in depth, I indicate the general nature of my position regarding them and provide references to published material where they have been made and responded to over the past 40 years. (shrink)

This review of Matthew Lipman’s autobiography, A Life Teaching Thinking, is a reflection on the themes and patterns of his extraordinarily productive career. His book begins with memories of earliest childhood and his preoccupation with the possibility of being able to fly, moves through the years in which his family struggled with the effects of the Great Depression, through his service in the military during World War II, his discovery of the joy and beauty of philosophy, his academic rise at (...) Columbia University, his Fullbright sojourn in Paris, and his early and later career. Lipman’s educational project led in four related directions: the practice of philosophy for children, which he invented, and which presents an epistemological challenge to a second field, philosophy of education, which is as startling as was Rousseau’s two hundred years before. Third, it led to a realm of theory called philosophy of childhood, upon which the practice of philosophy for children is a kind of action-meditation, prompting adults as it does to reflect on children’s differences from and similarities to adults at the same time, and in the same discursive space. Finally, his praxis also implicitly challenged those accounts of children’s philosophies, paradigmatically represented by Piaget’s work, which represent childhood epistemology as evidence for various genetic and epigenetic stage-based theories of cognitive development. The consequence for education of this confluence was a methodology—community of inquiry—that serves as a bridge between the two most influential philosophers of education of the 20th century—John Dewey and Paulo Freire. The educational praxis that emerged from his venture, for all its apparent simplicity, operationalizes a postcolonial standpoint epistemology vis a vis childhood and children, pulls the linchpin that holds in place the school as ideological state apparatus, and empowers the elementary classroom as a primary site for democratic theory and practice. (shrink)

This is an exciting time for people working in pre-college philosophy in the United States, as the last decade has seen slow but steady growth in the field. As the field develops, there is an expanding need for high-quality resources in a variety of areas: (1) for philosophers and other philosophy educators working with teachers, graduate and undergraduate students, and other adults to train skilled pre-college philosophy teachers; (2) for philosophy educators teaching philosophy in K–12 classrooms; and (3) for pre-college (...) teachers attempting to introduce philosophy into their own classrooms. This article evaluates five books that have been published in the last few years, all aimed at pre-college practitioners. Ranging from the very practical to the more theoretical, each of these books seeks to enhance the ability of philosophy educators to teach philosophy in pre-college classrooms. (shrink)

How does one best stimulate among children and youth the nurturing of caring, higher order thinking, which Matthew Lipman extols and seeks to realize via his Philosophy for Children program? For Lipman, this is achieved principally through philosophical dialogue in a community of inquiry characterized not so much by participants’ shared quest to reach a fixed destination, but by a process guided by “procedural rules, which are largely logical in nature,” and which are imbued with “reasonableness, creativity, and care”. This, (...) he believes, will best lead to the gaining of a deeper understanding of inquirers’ differing views that in turn enables them to accept and even embrace differences of opinion. Yet, I will contend in this paper, the type of process Lipman espouses, in which one allows an argument to be pursued wherever it happens to lead, must also be somewhat eschewed and supplanted with a discernible method on order to achieve the laudable ends Lipman has in mind, namely of enabling youth to “become more thoughtful, more reflective, more considerate, more reasonable individuals”. To Lipman, an ipso facto outcome of dialogue of the sort he endorses is that as students become inured to asking each other for and seeking out reasons and opinions, they develop the capacity to listen carefully to each other and build upon and develop one another’s ideas; but I will make the case that this skill of careful listening, combined with the development of ideas, needs to be informed by a critical-sceptical method, if the ambitious and laudable democracy-enhancing aims of the Lipmanian Philosophy for Children program are to be optimally achieved. (shrink)

Provides the means for an in-depth collaborative inquiry into scientific concepts, the nature of science, the ethical implications of science and the links between science and students' everyday lives. The first section discusses the theoretical basis for the approach used, citing relevant research, while the second presents a wide range of 15 purpose written stories to read and discuss with a class.

The recent passing of Ann Sharp, Co-Founder and Associate Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, at the age of 68, has left many of us involved in the movement of philosophy for/with children bereft, no doubt in many different ways. The warmth and intensity of her personal and professional focus, the simple clarity of her thinking, and her boundless energy in the work of international dissemination of the concept and practice of philosophizing with children, resonate (...) even more sonorously in her death. We thought it appropriate to try following at least one pathway backwards in her life story through the memory and testimony of her chief collaborator over a period of 35 years, Matthew Lipman. I interviewed Lipman, age 87, in the single room of the eldercare center in New Jersey that has become the site for his dogged and tenacious struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, and asked him to reflect on their long partnership. The transcript ends suddenly, not because we stopped talking, but because I stopped taping, sensing his fatigue, and suggesting that we return for another round, at which point we turned to other, less somber matters. (shrink)

We lead off this issue of Childhood and Philosophy with a collection of testimonies, homages, and brief memoirs offered from around the world in response to the death of the founder of Philosophy for Children, Matthew Lipman on December 26, 2010, at the age of 87. To characterize Lipman as “founder” is completely accurate, but barely evokes the role he played in conceiving, giving birth to, and nurturing this curriculum cum pedagogy that became a movement, and which has taken root (...) in over 40 countries, from Iceland to Nigeria to Taiwan to Chile and everywhere in between. The movement itself is broader than the program, which has in fact experienced multiple transformations in multiple contexts over its half-century of life. In fact, as many of the testimonies below either state outright or imply, the movement is an emancipatory one and thus implicitly political, infused with all the long-suffering hope for our species inspired in us by the fact of natality, and by our own intuitive faith in the transformative power of reason—or as Lipman came to call it, “reasonableness.” For those seized by its educational possibilities, it presents a sudden influx of sunlight and fresh air into an institution long stultified by its own rigid habitus, and promises the reconstruction of schooling in the image of authentic democratic practice that recognizes and honors the unique capacities of children. As Philosophy in the Classroom—Lipman’s first and now classic statement of educational philosophy--puts it, the movement promises a re-orientation of the goal of education from information (or “learning”) to meaning, and inaugurates the dialogue with childhood and children that follows from that. Lipman was not just founder of this movement but creator, inventor, developer, convener, organizer, faithful soldier, ambassador, apologist, polemicist, propagandist, and, finally, undying optimist. (shrink)

To investigate the effect of community of inquiry method on improvement of interpersonal relationship skills, based on Matthew Lipman’s theory and practice, an experiment was designed and conducted in Tehran among primary school students of third, fourth and fifth grades. 190 student were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control group . The experimental group was taught based on community of inquiry methodology for twelve ninety minute sessions. Interpersonal relationship skills were measured by Ardly & Asher’s questionnaire. Results show (...) that means of both experimental and control group on the pre-test didn't have any significant difference. But, the results of pre-test and post-test of both experimental and control group indicated that the mean of post-test scores of experimental group in relation to pre-test in interpersonal relationship skills increased, while the mean of the control group remained the same in the post-test, and the mean of the experimental group in the post-test was higher than the mean of the control group. In order to investigate the persistence of the treatment effect, the students were rechecked after 4 months, and the results appeared to be stable. Therefore, this semi-experimental study has shown that the community of inquiry method has positively affected interpersonal relationship skills in experimental group of children, with effects that continued for at least 4 months after the treatment. (shrink)

This paper testifies the crucial importance of Philosophy for Children for Emotional Growth. It begins by establishing the open ended character of emotional processes, showing how feminist philosophers have criticized the fixed conception of negative valence of certain emotions, and how, ultimately, the normative structure of emotions is open to modification. Then, it shows how talking about emotional processes and emotional situations can foster emotional growth once we understand that the acquisition of language and emotional vocabulary is one way to (...) best capture the openended character of emotions. Finally, attention is turned to Philosophy for Children. Taking as an illustration the emotion of hope and its importance to inquiry, the paper concludes by examining in what way P4C both benefits and reinforces the previous insights about emotion theory. (shrink)