Tag: Philosophy for Children

Ann-Margaret Sharp is interviewed here by Saeed Naji.  Ann-Margaret is the chief collaborator with Professor Matthew Lipman in the development of the Philosophy for Children (PFC) programme

1. Why is the philosophical novel more effective in education than the philosophical text?

John Dewey was wont to remind educators that there is a big difference between the logical development and presentation of a discipline and the psychological, developmental presentation of a discipline.

The philosophical text is an attempt to present philosophy in a logical and comprehensive manner devoid of experience. The philosophical story-as-text is an attempt to motivate children to inquire into philosophical concepts and philosophical procedures in a way that is directly related to children’s experience. In other words, the narrative presents philosophy embedded in the experience of fictional characters.

Children enjoy stories and can be motivated by them to think and inquire if the stories focus on issues and event which they find intriguing and contestable, while remaining connected to their own daily experience. When a story is discussed by a group of children it becomes a vehicle over which children, rather than adults, have control. Unlike the traditional textbook, it is their story and they use it to set an agenda for discussion and philosophical inquiry.

But there is a further reason for using narrative when working with children. We cannot assume that children walk into the classroom able to do philosophy well. They need to know how to proceed, and one effective way to help them acquire this procedural knowledge is to involve them, intellectually as well as emotionally, in the lives of characters who enact and model the processes of inquiry. These characters do not have to be the heroes, heroines and villains one finds in many literary children’s classics, but can be presented as ordinary children much like themselves. These fictional children take up the struggle of articulating what constitutes a good reason, or a good analogy or a good distinction or of examining the assumptions and implications of what is said. By what they think, say and do, they show that they care about ideas and value good thinking–even if they do not always exemplify it in their own behavior. If we can encourage children to identify with the intellectual processes of these characters, then they too will begin to practice these procedures of good inquiry and come to value them.

This view of narrative as a preparation for and a stimulus to children doing philosophy matches, in part, Martha Nussbaum’s account of the relationship between moral education, ethical judgment and narrative… Noting that philosophy must be directed to practical as well as theoretical concerns, Nussbaum, in her Loves Knowledge, makes a compelling case for approaching ethical judgment–making via the particular lives and complex predicaments of fictional characters:

Without a presentation of the mystery, conflict and riskiness of the lived deliberative situation, it will be hard for philosophy to convey the peculiar value and beauty of choosing humanly well… It is this idea that human deliberation is constantly an adventure of the personality, undertaken against terrific odds and among frightening mysteries, and that this is, in fact, the source of much of its beauty and richness, that texts written in traditional philosophical style have the most insuperable difficulty conveying. (p. 142)

All children are engaged in an adventure of making better judgments (whether they realize it or not). This involves thinking, critical, creative and caring thinking, about many aspects of human experience that are not tapped by traditional philosophy textbooks. Children who are in the process of building their own communities of philosophical inquiry will use stories as a springboard or trigger for their own further inquiry. What begins as reflection on a puzzling concept in a story will move to a consideration of questions and ideas which come from the children’s own experience. The stories themselves constitute a vehicle for young persons to gain access to the realm of philosophical inquiry in such a way that they can see the connection between their on-going inquiry and their making of better judgments in their daily lives.

To read the full interview go HERE