1st Global Conference
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Friday 10th September - Sunday 12th September 2004
Mansfield College, Oxford
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session
6: Some Opportunities and Problems of Irish ‘Thinking-Time’
Chair: Sharon Kaye
Philosophy with Children
Anne Rousseau
Is there a risk that ‘doing’ philosophy
with children will kill the philosopher in the child?
In its literal
sense philosophy means love of knowledge or wisdom. Blackburn (1996)
defines philosophy as “the study of the most
general and abstract features of the world and categories with
which we think.” My data illustrates children’s abiding
fascination with such features of the world, and the categories with
which they think about difference. Blackburn also asserts that, for
the philosopher, “the concepts with which we approach the world
themselves become the topic of enquiry” (p.286). Thus my project,
in raising children’s awareness of the categories they employ
in engaging with the world, serves as philosophical end and means and
may contain an embryonic pedagogy for intercultural education. While
my research focuses primarily on the categories with which children
think about difference, it indirectly raises questions as to whether
the educational system, by isolating and defining numerous discrete
subjects that are evaluated by the children’s ability to regurgitate
the book content, is not in fact positively inhibiting critical thinking
in both children and older students.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines
philosophy as “any system
of belief, values or tenets; a personal outlook or viewpoint.” This
paper discusses children’s beliefs, values, personal viewpoints
and categorisations on the topic of difference. Children’s ability
to philosophise is demonstrated and their capacity to ‘do’ philosophy
in a certain way is asserted. Nevertheless, words from children provide
evidence suggesting that they are being socialised to abandon the activity
of philosophising (Matthews 1980).
“I have no suggestions or thoughts.
I like discussing and finding new things. I think it is good to discuss
this.” These are the
reflections of a 5 th class child evaluating a thinking session, unaware
of the inherent contradiction in his words.
Ethos, Children and Plato’s Meno
Jones Irwin
St Patrick's College, Dublin, Ireland
No abstract is presently available.