vol. 47 núm. 86(en-ju) (2015): perspectivas actuales en filosofía para niños

While 3/18 Philosophy´ project (Philosophy for Children or filosofía para niños) begings mainly with literature as a source for philosophical reflection, over time we have been introducing new languages. The GrupIREF, an association in Catalonia is responsible for training and dissemination of the project,which started 25 years ago. Pioneering schools have been part of the project for some years and we thought that to complement the narrative materials along with the film reading, based on the same objectives and with the same methods, would have been a way to enrich the project and give it a new look.

This interview was conducted during the visit of Angelica Sátiro to Colombia in 2013, withing the framework of the V International Seminar of Philosophy for Children: to think a creative citizenship and V International Congress of creativity and social innovation, which took place at the university Uniminuto, Bogota.

The present paper aims to understand the movement between heteronomous and autonomous practices of teachers. The latter are the basis for the consolidation of ethical environments from the dialogic interaction (environments that offer favorable elements for the development of autonomy in students). The paper describes theory and literature regarding the conditions offered by the dialogic interaction considered by the discourse ethics of Habermas and other proponents of this line of critical theory of society. It then presents the final phase of the research project of which it emerges, i.e its findings and conclusions, as guidelines for teaching practices and autonomous actions based on the fundamental principles of communicative action theory, particularly from discourse ethics. In other words, for the development of teaching practices from the dialogic interaction, which foster autonomy without contradictions. 

As a result of applied research, this paper offers a critical analysis of the place of emotions in the educative field. Based on the Cheshire Calhoum & Robert Solomon’s taxonomy (1992), we opted for the evaluative and cognitive framework from professor Martha Nussbaum, where emotions are considered judgments that, based on beliefs that guide action, play an essential role in our decisions. Following this order, the paper analyzes the theoretical proposal of emotion as judgment, and its importance in understanding the formation of moral judgment, in addition to the role of education of emotions in contrast to the moral intellectualism, from the perspective of philosophical education. Finally, it is proposed that imagination, argumentation and deliberation in the context of morality, are the human dimensions that are favored and privileged in education of the emotions. 

The notion of experience has given rise to the distinction between philosophy for children and philosophy with children. While the pillars of the former lie in a structured curriculum –designed by specialists– including novels and manuals that support the teaching work, the pillars of the latter lie in a proposal to work with different types of material freely designed and chosen by teachers to stimulate inquiry and thinking. It is, in general, believed that the facilities of the Lipmanian approach have made easier its viability. However, compared to the reproduction of didactic devices, the creative planning of philosophical enquiry sessions seems to stimulate the experience of philosophical reflection. This matter will be analysed considering our former practical work and experience in training and accompanying institutions faced to the following policy tension: do the teaching practices that relate philosophy and childhood crave to become a majority and multiply, or do they resign to a less challenging aim by privileging certain devices thought to be the only ones that secure the experience of philosophical reflection. The latter being interpreted as the experience of transforming contexts of located thinking. To this end, various reflections and categories previously explored and discussed by us will be taken into account, which emerge from our work as trainers of teachers of philosophy. 

In the present work we will reflect on the goal, in terms of its political aspect, of practicing philosophy with children. On the one hand, we intend to show the tensions and the paradoxes that are implied when thinking philosophy as an educational and political praxis. On the other hand, we will try out a possible answer that allows us not only to inhabit those tensions and paradoxes, but also that enables a transformation of educational practices. In order to achieve the above, the paper is organized in three sections. In the first one, we will analyze Lipman’s Philosophy for Children programme, emphasizing on the concept of community of Inquiry and the teaching role assigned by this proposal. In the second section – under the hypothesis that, although Philosophy for children is acknowledged as an innovative programme, there are some elements that allow us to question that qualification –we will try to show some similarities between Lipman’s proposal and what is usually known as “traditional education”. Finally, we will analyze some elements from Ranciere’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster, in order to examine the student-teacher relationship proposed by the author. We will examine up close if such proposal is different from others, whether it is possible to think a different relationship between students and teachers. 

Philosophy for children (P4C) is a movement which began in the late 70’s in the U.S and was founded by Matthew Lipman. Its aim is to encourage primary school children to think for themselves by teaching them reasoning skills based on the introduction of philosophical dialogue. Lipman and his team wanted to turn the classrooms into communities of philosophical inquiry, that is to say, spaces for improving cognitive skills. 

This paper covers some general ideas about the novel written by Matthew Lipman: Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery. The aim of the paper is to offer "reading keys" that help teachers reading the novel, or teachers that are using it with their students’ group in class, to understand its philosophical meaning. To do that I describe the context defined by the four novels of the complete program of "Philosophy for Children" proposed by the author and, from there, I address five guiding elements for the potential reader: The discovery of Harry, the theoretical structure and narrative of the novel, the relationship between logic and other philosophical problems, the "forms of the superior thinking", and some suggestions in order to work the novel in class. The article deals with philosophical aspects that the novel assumes, as categorical propositions, which are the main discovery of Harry, language construction of formal logic, mental acts and reasoning validation mechanisms, as well as the relationship that exists between thought and language, and its implications in addressing problems from the different areas of philosophy: cosmological, political, aesthetic, epistemological, ethical, etc. 

The philosophical game is intended as an approach that addresses both game and philosophy. It is an approach that aims to maximize the critical and creative thought in children from their “being-child”. This paper explores the methodologies of philosophy for children, and philosophy with children abstracting from both the following proposals: communities of inquiry, philosophical dialogue, complex thinking and an unpredictable experience of philosophical thinking, which aims that children, through game, cross the doors of philosophy –as practicum–. As an experience where its individual perception of what reality is can be heard and talked about through playful activities. Because there is nothing more concrete than Being played.