Philosophy for Children: Aesthetics

This paper is based on a literature review of articles discussing the teaching and learning of philosophy in primary and secondary schools. The purpose of this review was to address two research questions: What 'is 'philosophy? What does philosophy do? This paper addresses the second question—What does philosophy do?—by gathering together research that focuses on and discusses the impact of philosophy in the classroom. Two distinct claims emerge from the literature. The first claim is that philosophy improves academic and cognitive (...) abilities, where the idea of ‘cognition’ is captured by forms of reasoning that can be tested and measured. The evidence for improvement in academic and cognitive abilities takes the form of IQ scores, Cognitive Abilities Test and school academic assessments, including norm-referenced tests of reading, reasoning, and other curriculum-related assessments. The second claim is that engaging with the world philosophically promotes the art of living well together. It is argued that philosophical engagement is a collaborative endeavour, aimed at cultivating understanding through respectful interactions that are open to exploring, questioning and challenging aspects of the world. The outcome of engaging in philosophical conversations is personal and social transformation. (shrink)

This paper is based on a literature review of articles discussing the teaching and learning of philosophy in primary and secondary schools. The purpose of this review was to address two research questions: What 'is 'philosophy? What does philosophy do? This paper addresses the first research question—What 'is' philosophy?—by gathering together the various understandings of the word ‘philosophy’ circulating in the literature. There are ten understandings of what philosophy 'is' that have arisen from the literature: philosophy as a foundational concept; (...) philosophy as thinking—a skill, a disposition, a practice; philosophy as method or process; philosophy as a tool or instrument; philosophy as a creative task; philosophy as inquiry; philosophy as search for truth; philosophy as non-dogmatic teaching and hence the emancipation of thought; philosophy as communal activity; philosophy as a way of life. These ten understandings have been consistent over time, from writing in the field in the 1970s through to the present day. Many commentators hold and work with multiple understandings of what philosophy 'is' in their writing. (shrink)

Media and Moral Education demonstrates that the study of philosophy can be used to enhance critical thinking skills, which are sorely needed in today’s technological age. It addresses the current oversight of the educational environment not keeping pace with rapid advances in technology, despite the fact that educating students to engage critically and compassionately with others via online media is of the utmost importance. -/- D’Olimpio claims that philosophical thinking skills support the adoption of an attitude she calls critical perspectivism, (...) which she applies in the book to international multimedia examples. The author also suggests that the Community of Inquiry – a pedagogy practised by advocates of Philosophy for Children – creates a space in which participants can practise being critically perspectival, and can be conducted with all age levels in a classroom or public setting, making it beneficial in shaping democratic and discerning citizens. -/- This book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, critical theory and communication, film and media studies. (shrink)

Following neo-Aristotelians Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum, we claim that humans are story-telling animals who learn from the stories of diverse others. Moral agents use rational emotions, such as compassion which is our focus here, to imaginatively reconstruct others’ thoughts, feelings and goals. In turn, this imaginative reconstruction plays a crucial role in deliberating and discerning how to act. A body of literature has developed in support of the role narrative artworks (i.e. novels and films) can play in allowing us (...) the opportunity to engage imaginatively and sympathetically with diverse characters and scenarios in a safe protected space that is created by the fictional world. By practising what Nussbaum calls a ‘loving attitude’, her version of ethical attention, we can form virtuous habits that lead to phronesis (practical wisdom). In this paper, and taking compassion as an illustrative focus, we examine the ways that students’ moral education might usefully develop from engaging with narrative artworks through Philosophy for Children (P4C), where philosophy is a praxis, conducted in a classroom setting using a Community of Inquiry (CoI). We argue that narrative artworks provide useful stimulus material to engage students, generate student questions, and motivate philosophical dialogue and the formation of good habits which, in turn, supports the argument for philosophy to be taught in schools. (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)

It can hardly be denied that play is an important tool for the development and socialisation of children. In this article we argue that, through dramaturgical play in combination with pedagogical tools such as the Community of Inquiry (CoI), in the tradition of Philosophy for Children (P4C), students can creatively think, reflect and be more aware of the impact their gestures (Schmid 2000b) have on others. One of the most fundamental aspects of the embodied human life is human interaction that (...) is based on expressions, what Schmid calls gestures. Through self-reflection, one’s set of gestures can be developed into a deliberate ‘life-performance’; a conscious, selected and coherent work of art (Schmid, 2000b, p. 332). Drawing on Nietzsche’s idea of living artistically, we explore how Schmid’s philosophy of the art of living, P4C and the liberal arts, with a focus on drama education, can work together to develop (self-) reflective, reasonable citizens who are able to develop their own art of living while respecting and supporting the development of the good and beautiful life of others. (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)

This article explores the meeting of two approaches towards philosophy and education: the philosophy for children approach advocated by Lipman and others, and Schmid’s philosophical concept of Lebenskunst. Schmid explores the concept of the beautiful or good life by asking what is necessary for each individual to be able to develop their own art of living and which aspects of life are significant when shaping a good and beautiful life. One element of Schmid’s theory is the practical application of philosophy (...) through the notions of Bildung, reflection, prudence and practical wisdom, as well as the requirement for each individual to take responsibility for actively shaping their life as an artwork. In this sense, each person is the artist responsible for living their own beautiful life. We argue that there are useful parallels between Schmid’s concept of the art of living and P4C, such as the ideal of a holistic philosophy that is “lived.” The pragmatic approach of P4C focuses on the embodied learner who practices critical, caring and creative thinking. Both P4C and Schmid’s theory are reminiscent of the Aristotelian notion of practical wisdom, which allows for an approach to an education for life that prepares students to develop their own art of living. (shrink)

It is generally recognized that any inquiry must be sensitive to context and that facilitation is never simply a matter of following a set of rules. In this paper I list and discuss the particular challenges of facilitating an inquiry with a small group of adolescent boys, all of whom had difficulty in learning despite being of at least average intelligence. I describe some adaptations to the classic P4C model of inquiry that I found helpful and refer briefly to the (...) progress made by the boys. I conclude that, although research suggests that children and young people who learn differently may be those most likely to benefit from P4C, we should not underestimate the facilitation challenges they present or the time it takes for cognitive and social gains to influence performance in school. The inclusive education movement, with its emphasis on accommodating diversity, implies that such children are increasingly present in regular classrooms. It is important that trainers are aware of this and ensure that teachers who are eager to create classroom communities of inquiry have sufficient quality training and support. My final comment is that, if facilitation is an art, we should not expect all teachers to become, or to wish to become, highly effective facilitators of philosophical inquiry after a brief training. (shrink)

This paper explores how engaging in and with philosophy in the streets has unique and special potential for children doing philosophy both inside and outside the classroom. We highlight techniques drawn from research into the political, social and activist potential of street art, and we illustrate how to apply these techniques in a P4C context in what we call guerrilla philosophy. We argue that guerrilla philosophy is a pedagogically powerful method to philosophically engage students whose ages range from 11-13. In (...) calling attention to the power of guerrilla philosophy to engage students philosophically, we are tacitly assuming a Deweyan philosophical approach, which emphasises the importance of promoting civic-mindedness as a social value; the reliance on imaginative, creative and experiential forms of learning as essential to education ; and a vision of the classroom as an embodiment of the larger civic community to which we all belong and in which we all must cooperate and engage. This paper traces these three themes in Dewey’s philosophical views of education and democracy, and considers how they are given a twenty-first century interpretation through street art, guerrilla philosophy and children’s activism. (shrink)

The notions of well-being and happiness are widely used today in a range of disciplines, areas of research, educational practice and daily life. However, these terms have to be considered critically, and careful reflection on their meaning is needed in each context where they are used. One reflection in the context of education has been conducted in relation to positive psychology as well as philosophical concepts and questions such as how to live a good life, the art of living and (...) especially Schmid’s concept of Lebenskunst or ‘art of living’. Still, the research undertaken to connect these concepts with the area of early childhood education in particular has been rather limited. The current paper is one step to bridge this gap by exploring how the concept of the art of living relates to early childhood education and the notion of well-being as it is used in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki. It is proposed that early childhood educators can support the development of children’s abilities to enable them to engage actively in shaping their own lives and developing their own art of living earlier rather than later in their lives. Further, suggestions are made for teaching practice about ways early childhood educators can support young children to become reflective, autonomous and knowledgeable human beings, who are able to take responsibility for their own lives. (shrink)

The idea of Philosophy for Children initiated by Matthew Lipman aims to foster critical and creative thinking in children through the pedagogy of a community of inquiry. In his formulation of P4C, Lipman emphasizes the role of logical reasoning in thinking and assumes a mutually reinforcing relationship between critical and creative thinking. In this paper, I present an example of a real classroom dialogue which illustrates the inherent tension between logical and creative thinking, as well as the need to go (...) beyond critical thinking. I then proceed to argue for the importance of communication in creating and sustaining a genuine community of inquiry. In conclusion, I suggest that John Dewey’s view of communication as essentially transformative, aesthetic, educative, and moral can be made the basis for envisioning an alternative focus of P4C—namely, the ideal of artful communication, which has far-reaching implications for realizing the democratic idea of “community” in a community of inquiry. (shrink)

Over the last decade, there has been a considerable expansion of mindfulness programmes into a number of different domains of contemporary life, such as corporations, schools, hospitals and even the military. Understanding the reasons for this phenomenon involves, I argue, reflecting upon the nature of contemporary capitalism and mapping the complexity of navigating new digital technologies that make multiple and accelerated solicitations upon attention and our affective lives. Whilst acknowledging the benefits of mindfulness practice, this article argues that it is (...) equally important to attend to the ethical framework that gives orientation to these practices and the outer conditions that shape lived daily experience, such as school or work environments. I suggest that the well-meaning efforts to secularise mindfulness, provide scientific evidence for its effectiveness, and introduce it to wider publics may have served to impoverish the rich contribution that practices of mindfulness, situated within a broader ethical framework, can make to human lives, and arguably contribute to the educational endeavour. For example, the emphasis on transforming inner conditions of students’ lives can lead to the neglect of outer conditions, such as structural inequality, or unhealthy and exploitative work practices. This can result in practices that privilege individual wellbeing over compassion and concern for the happiness of others, providing a buffer against loving attention to the world and others. Instead, I ask how mindfulness in educational settings could come to be viewed in a different light if we reflect upon the ways in which school environments and curricula can promote mindfulness, awareness, sensitive inquiry, and contemplative practices through the day, rather than offering it as a discrete intervention focused on the self and wellbeing. (shrink)

Whilst continuing racism is often invoked as evidence of the urgent need for Philosophy for Children, there is little in the current literature that addresses the topic. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and the related field of Critical Whiteness Studies , I argue that racism is deeply ingrained culturally in society, and best understood in the context of ‘Whiteness’. Following a CRT-informed analysis of two picturebooks that have been recommended as starting points for philosophical enquiry into multiculturalism, racism and diversity (...) – ‘Elmer’ and ‘Tusk Tusk’ by David McKee, I argue that whilst the use of stories with animals is commonly regarded as offering children the comfort of distance from emotionally challenging topics, this has the effect of separating racism from its temporal and spatial realities, which limits rather than enhances opportunities for engaging philosophically with it. I argue in favour of the practice of ‘reading against the text’ and consider the epistemological and practical obstacles to this practice drawing on my own experiences discussing race with P4C practitioners in the UK. I attempt to illustrate how the selection of recommended materials, combined with commonly held principles of P4C, make for a climate where a philosophical engagement with race and racism that considers the discourse of ‘Whiteness’ is highly unlikely to occur. This leads me to posit the idea of The Gated Community of Enquiry. (shrink)

Dans un ouvrage récent, Not for Profit, Martha C. Nussbaum a pris fait et cause pour la philosophie pour enfants . En fait, ce renvoi n’est pas isolé car de nombreux échanges entre Nussbaum et Matthew Lipman ont existé. Dans cet article, je ne m’intéresse pas aux citations de l’un à l’autre mais pars de l’œuvre de Nussbaum pour esquisser ce qu’il en est de l’éducation à la démocratie. Pour commencer, je rappelle la théorie des « capabilités », ou capacités (...) réelles ; je montre en outre l’importance des émotions dans une démocratie. Ensuite, je traite de la culture des émotions en démocratie. L’éducation concerne certes les adultes, mais elle touche bien davantage les enfants. L’exemple du dégoût sert à montrer l’importance d’une prise en charge des émotions dès l’enfance, particulièrement à l’école. Enfin, je regarde la manière dont on peut, dans une pratique de classe, promouvoir l’esprit critique en suivant les préceptes donnés par Nussbaum. Comment, dans une communauté de recherche, prêter davantage attention à autrui ? Comment exploiter en philosophie pour enfants la thèse selon laquelle les émotions sont des jugements de valeur ? Pour conclure, j’essaie d’approfondir le lien entre Nussbaum et Gareth B. Matthews : sans doute l’insistance de la première sur la valeur formatrice des récits aurait-elle dû l’amener à se pencher davantage sur la pratique philosophique avec les enfants du second. In a recent work, Not for Profit, Martha C. Nussbaum stood for the Philosophy for Children movement. In fact, this mention is not isolated, for many exchanges took place between Nussbaum and Matthew Lipman. I don’t focus on quotations from the one by the other but instead, starting from Nussbaum’s work, sketch her conception of training for democracy. First of all, I remember her theory of capabilities and show furthermore the importance of emotions in a democracy. I treat then the culture of emotions in a democracy. Of course, education refers to adults too. Still, it concerns children more heavily. The instance of disgust helps in showing the importance of dealing with emotions since childhood, particularly at schools. Finally, I get a look on how, in a classroom, critical thinking may be improved using Nussbaum’s precepts. How can be paid more attention to the other in a community of inquiry? How is in P4C the thesis that emotions are judgments of value to be exploited? In conclusion, I try to deepen the link between Nussbaum and Gareth B. Matthews: the stress laid by the latter on the formative value of narratives might have driven her to bend herself more on the philosophical practice of the former. (shrink)

How should we teach philosophy in high schools? While electives are useful, I advocate going further to integrate philosophy into each traditional subject. High school instructors, working with philosophers, first teach logic as a foundation for asking philosophical questions within their subjects. Students are then encouraged to think about how they reason and what assumptions they are making in each subject. In English, students might consider what makes a novel a work of art; in science, they might explore what it (...) means to call a theory “true.” Unlike an elective model, my approach ensures that all students benefit from philosophy during their secondary education. I conclude the paper with suggestions for implementation. (shrink)

Kieran Egan states that imagination "is a concept that has come down to us with a history of suspicion and mistrust" (2007, p. 4). Like experience and the emotions, the imagination is frequently thought to be an obstacle to reason. While reason is conceived of as an abstract, objective and rule-governed method of delivering absolute truths, the imagination is considered "unconstrained, arbitrary, and fanciful," as well as "particular, subjective, and idiosyncratic" (Jo 2002, p. 39). This negative view of the imagination (...) can be traced back at least as far as Plato, and it is still evident in contemporary educational ideas and practices. Dominant approaches to schooling emphasize the accumulation of facts and the .. (shrink)

Both Walter Kohan and Nancy Vansieleghem have questioned the aims of Philosophy for Children. It is the intention of this current paper to pursue the line of inquiry opened up by these authors, but from the standpoint of John Dewey’s pragmatism. Dewey’s philosophy shifts the focus from discovering the aim of P4C to aims in the particular contexts in which P4C operates. As such, aims in education are seen as: required for intelligent education, inseparable from the means, contingent upon specific (...) contexts, used for ethico-politico-aesthetic purposes, multiple and complementary, and internally generated from those engaged in the practice. (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)

The article assumes that Lipman’s paradigm of ‘Philosophy for Children’ as a ‘Community of Inquiry’ is very useful in extending the range of philosophical practices and the benefits of philosophical community reflection to collective life as such. In particular, it examines the possible contribution of philosophy to the practical and ethical dynamics which, nowadays, seem to characterise many deliberative public contexts. Lipman’s idea of CI is an interesting interpretative key for such contexts. As a result, the article highlights the possibility (...) of understanding a CI essentially in terms of an ethics of responsibility. (shrink)

This paper is about activities of ‘community of inquiry’ on the basis of Lipman’s model applied at a kindergarten in Seoul, Korea. The activities of community of inquiry, basically, includes a series of activities, for example, reading textbooks, making up questions, discussing on themes, working out exercises and further responding. At the beginning of P4C lessons, young children had difficulties in reading texts with no pictures, and making up questions. Having philosophy lessons repeatedly, they were accustomed to the activities, felt (...) joy of thinking by themselves, and enjoyed dialoguing with friends and discussing together. The young children in the community of inquiry showed intimacy and curiosity about the stories written by Dr, Chung, which described typical Korean young child’s daily life and were full of situations experienced in their families and kindergartens. The young children were interested in inquiring philosophical aspects of the stories, tried to think by themselves like philosophers, and finally could achieve the goals of P4C, in short, to think by themselves, to cultivate ethical and aesthetic mind, and to harmonize with others. (shrink)

Critical reasoning is a core element of the P4C program. Yet, the appearance of postmodernism, multiculturalism and ethnocentrism casts doubt on the Western concept of rationality and demands that its claim of universal purview be justified. In this context, the desideratum of this article is to provide a concept of rationality that has the potential to serve as the theoretical basis of reasoning in P4C. This is an important task, because if we cannot defend P4C against the postmodern criticism of (...) rationality, we cannot claim that it is a multicultural program in a true sense, nor can we defend it against the charge that this is just another attempt of western colonization. (shrink)

This study deals with an exploratory research about understanding of art in students of different age, grades and kind of schools attended. In particular, we analysed how beliefs and reflections about art and aesthetical experiences expressed during a cross-age interview, changed in elementary school children involved for two years in a UE Project titled “Philosophy and European Contemporary Art”. The activities are based on guided philosophical discussions, transforming the classroom in a “community of inquiry”, according to the methodology of “Philosophy (...) for Children” program . The elementary school group was tested pre and post the program activities. A qualitative analysis of the students’ answers was carried out, considering the data with respect to the five stages of art understanding defined by Micheal Parsons which correspond to different beliefs about art in the subjects. (shrink)

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 (...) find childhood strongly represented in his autobiographical testimony Abécédaire, where it is one of the concepts upon which he comments. Beyond that and more generally, all of his work carries the motives of childhood—full of a childlike desire to rethink the the stereotypes and the commonplaces, and to wake up the spaces not yet thought in which the adult discourses of childhood and practices with children most often consist. We chose passages from numerous references, particularly Difference and Repetition, A Thousand Plateaus , and the already cited Abécédaire. They are presented in chronological order. We also include transcripts from Deleuze’s classes at the University of Vincennes-Saint Denis. (shrink)

Lo que me propongo presentar en este texto no son más que algunas observaciones y reflexiones, algunas de ellas incluso un poco marginales, a un trabajo mucho más amplio que vengo realizando desde hace más de seis años: la traducción y adaptación cultural para el mundo de habla hispana de la novela filosófica Suki, de Matthew Lipman, y de su correspondiente manual de apoyo para el profesor, que tiene por título Escribir: ¿cómo y por qué? Me ocuparé, en primer lugar, (...) de clarificar el origen y las características de este trabajo de traducción y adaptación cultural, en orden a mostrar algunos de los criterios generales que para ello fui elaborando a medida que desarrollaba mi trabajo. A continuación presentaré algunas experiencias de escritura con niños y jóvenes que me han servido de punto de referencia en mi reflexión sobre la dimensión filosófica del acto de la escritura. Lo esencial en el esfuerzo por generar en otros el interés y las habilidades para desarrollar la composición poética está muchas veces en ayudarles a expresarse nuevamente en términos sencillos, pero evocadores. Concluiré con algunas reflexiones generales, inspiradas en Matthew Lipman, sobre la relación existente entre la reflexión filosófica y la escritura poética. En el trabajo de adaptación del manual Escribir: ¿cómo y por qué? he hecho, entonces, una recopilación bastante amplia de poemas de grandes autores de muchísimos países hispanoamericanos. Hay allí poemas de autores como Miguel Hernández, Antonio Machado o Federico García Lorca, y otros , del mexicano Octavio Paz, del nicaragüense Rubén Darío, del peruano César Vallejo, o del chileno Pablo Neruda, o incluso canciones del panameño Rubén Blades, del cubano Silvio Rodríguez, del argentino Piero o hasta del brasileño Vinicius de Moraes. Pero he incluido también poemas escritos por niños de mi país. (shrink)

Goering writes on the perspectives of her students through contrasting philosophy to unrelated anthological texts which include language arts and history.

Published in 1999. The articles in this collection focus on instruction - and writings arising from that instruction - in philosophy and the arts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with emphasis on Central Europe. The introduction brings together and expands upon many of the topics discussed - and conclusions reached - in the remaining seven articles. Four of these articles are devoted to examining the significance of two ancient authors and of two more recent ones. The article on Keckermann (...) is based in part on previously unpublished biographical and bibliographical source materials. Two concepts - encyclopedia and philosophy - as utilized in the 16th and 17th centuries constitute the subject matter of separate articles. And one article focuses primarily on curriculum plans written during the 16th and early 17th centuries. These eight articles are based on a wide array of printed and manuscript source materials which are cited together with library/archive locations and call numbers and which are made more easily accessible through three indices at the conclusion of this volume. (shrink)