After pointing out the most commonly understood difference between Anglo-American Philosophy and Continental Philosophy, namely, logico-linguistic analysis versus personal reflection, Martens shows how, from the standpoint of Continental Philosophy, this distinction is unwarranted. By showing us how each of these aspects of philosophy is recommended for the philosophic education of the young by various writers from the Continental tradition, Martens reveals how the practice of Philosophy for Children has long been proposed by Continental philosophers, albeit, not the whole methodology by (...) any one particular philosopher at any one time. The paper reveals the sympathy that Continental Philosophy therefore has for Philosophy for Children and concludes by questioning the place of the Eastern tradition in the ongoing dialogue about what philosophic inquiry with children should entail. (shrink)

In Science as Social Knowledge, Helen Longino offers a contextual analysis of evidential relevance. She claims that this "contextual empiricism" reconciles the objectivity of science with the claim that science is socially constructed. I argue that while her account does offer key insights into the role that values play in science, her claim that science is nonetheless objective is problematic.

This is an important book precisely because there is none other quite like it.

This essay concerns relationships among value experience, value inquiry, and value theory. Five stages of value experience are distinguished, comprising a narrative of the attempt to enhance certain kinds of experience. A multi-level model of value inquiry is presented, beginning with improvement of immediate situations and moving to meta-level inquiry. Six pragmatist methods for conducing value inquiry are explained, which culminate in informed judgments of preference among qualitative experiences.

In accordance with Progressivism, Matthew Lipman, introduced an educational model for renewal and change by means of the child. With his Philosophy for Children programme he wished to offer an alternative for the intellectualistic oriented education which silenced children. The answer to the search for freedom and change, Lipman finds in the symbioses between ‘Philosophy’ and ‘Children’. Philosophy expressed in critical thinking and communication, was the basis to emancipate the child from the oppression of the adult and to cause change. (...) According to Lipman the main purpose of philosophy is to free every individual from determination. This plea is being elaborated by dialogue. The main issue of our paper concerns the question whether Lipman’s alternative ‘Philosophy for Children’ can fulfil the promise of change and freedom. To answer this question we will investigate thoroughly where dialogue and change in Philosophy for Children stand for. Finally we will propose another perspective of dialogue. A dialogue stressed on listening. Listening to how the world appears to us and how we appear to ourselves. (shrink)

Howard Gardner's brilliant conception of individual competence is changing the face of education today. In the ten years since the publication of his seminal Frames of Mind, thousands of educators, parents, and researchers have explored the practical implications of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory—the powerful notion that there are separate human capacities, ranging from musical intelligence to the intelligence involved in understanding oneself. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice brings together previously published and original work by Gardner and his colleagues at (...) Project Zero to provide a coherent picture of what we have learned about the educational applications of MI theory from projects in schools and formal research over the last decade. (shrink)

Reasoning, reading and language arts program designed to help children develop cognitive skills in a sequenced yet cumulative manner.

Terry Eagleton's acclaimed work 'Literary theory' inspired a generation and established him as one of the leading thinkers of the Left. Now he argues that the age of 'high' theory has come to a close - and looks at what ought to follow. Tracing the rise and fall of theory from the 1960s to the 1990s, Eagleton' explores the cultural and political factors that brought it to birth, examining how path-breaking writers such as Barthes, Foucault, Lacan and Kristeva brought subjects (...) like gender, power, sexuality and ethnicity out of the margins. He offers a candid assessment of the gains and losses of cultural theory, rebutting many of the standard charges against it, but claiming also that it has been silent or evasive about a whole range of vital issues. (shrink)

This edition brings Dewey's educational theory into sharp focus, framing his two classic works by frank assessments, past and present, of the practical applications of Dewey's ideas. In addition to a substantial introduction in which Philip W. Jackson explains why more of Dewey's ideas haven't been put into practice, this edition restores a "lost" chapter, dropped from the book by Dewey in 1915.

Considering the potential of Philosophy for Children in both the political and philosophical worlds, I had often naively assumed that the program would have the support of philosophers and/or anyone interested in evolutionary democratic reform. In a time when professional philosophy is self-destructive, on the defensive and often without a sense of purpose, the Philosophy for Children approach seemed to promise a possible resurgence of general interest in philosophy, along with a concrete practical application for philosophical acumen and expertise. Meanwhile, (...) the socio-political aspects of the program appeared to speak to the interests of "progressive" minded democrats around the world, with its goal of empowerment through the practice of inquiry in democratic, non-authoritarian communities. (shrink)

In the April 1992 issue of Analytic Teaching there was an essay by Jen Glasser from Australia dealing with the problem of materials with which to do philosophy with children. Although Australian and Danish education are very different, we share some of the same problems raised in the essay. So I feel inspired to share with the readers of Analytic Teachingthe problems we have in Denmark with the American texts by Lipman, and our ways of doing philosophy with children.

Much of the current research and writing on Community of Inquiry has focused on inquiry, specifically, it has focused on classroom discussion and how to move a classroom discussion in the direction of forming a community of inquiry. This is as it should be. Community of Inquiry, while finding its origins in Pierce's idea of a 19th century scientific community, has become focused and defined first in John Dewey and more recently and fully in Philosophy for Children and in particular (...) in the work of Ann Margaret Sharp. The current work by Laurance Splitter and Ann Sharp will provide an even more fully developed picture of community of inquiry within classroom practice and philosophy for children. (shrink)

As I was thinking about what I would say to you tonight, I remembered myself in my freshman year at a Catholic girls high school. It was Spring and the nuns had told us that we would have a five-day retreat. Speakers would come to speak to us in the mornings and the afternoons would be reserved for reflection and reading. Of course, it was to be a silent retreat. No talking for five days.

During the 1984, '85 and '86 school years, I trained a number of teachers in the White Plains School District to work with the Pixie, Harry and Lisa programs. One of the teachers, Nancy Gumbinner, was so impressed with the quality of the discussions she had with her fourth grade students in the district's More Able Student Program during the 1984-85 school year that she decided to use some of the exercises from the Pixie manual to see if she could (...) promote similar discussions the following year with a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, heterogeniously grouped class of fourth graders at the district's Post Road School without using Pixie. To enable the children to enter into a reflective, critical and eventually autonomously dialectical mode of thinking without the help of the models provided by the novel, Nancy decided to train them in some basic relaxation techniques which would enable them to become aware of, reflect upon, criticize and share both their thinking and their thinking about their own and one another's thinking. She did this in three ways: physically, imaginatively, and intellectually. (shrink)