Twice a month, The duty challenges enthusiasts of philosophy and the history of ideas to decipher a topical question based on the theses of an outstanding thinker.
As shown by the issue of freedom of expression in universities and the content of exchanges on social networks, the training of citizens capable of debate and dialogue is necessary for the functioning of a participatory and deliberative democracy. Likewise, the problems related to domestic violence, sexual assault and child protection justify considering the learning that must be done to prevent unacceptable behavior. As the Minister of Education examines different avenues to replace the Ethics and Religious Culture course, Philosophy for Children may well be a credible solution to act on these issues by shaping minds and educating for citizenship. , from elementary and secondary school.
In The duty of June 13, 2020, Normand Baillargeon underlined that the philosophy for children excels at instilling the virtues that demand political action: “to listen to others, to argue rationally, to recognize that one can be mistaken and that one indeed is sometimes mistaken”. There is an already well-structured philosophy program for children which does not consist of teaching the great authors, but of developing a philosophical practice in the spirit of the pragmatism of John Dewey (1859-1952). It was the American philosopher Matthew Lipman who, in the 1970s, developed philosophy for children on this pragmatist basis. This approach is taught in several Quebec universities. Much more than a simple general culture program, such a program is indeed a citizen training where ethical reflection is developed in an original and constructive way.
Dewey’s pragmatism
The practice of philosophy for children is part of a pragmatist approach to philosophy and education that should be traced back to John Dewey. In his work How We Think, Dewey maintains that “the method to be used to develop the aptitude for reflective thinking is to create favorable conditions for the emergence of curiosity and its development, is to establish links between the various experiences, which will lead to a flood of suggestions, raise problems and constitute the objectives which will foster a flood of ideas ”. Still according to Dewey, philosophical practice must be based on lived experience, and education must constantly reconstruct reflective experience. In this way, philosophical reflection becomes a pedagogical process which is the copy of an inquiry, which is an experience in itself, and the foundation of democratic life.
Through this reconstruction of philosophy, the pragmatist turn induces a reformulation of ethics which implies an intersubjective and transactional construction of meaning. The subjects develop their way of thinking there; their capacity to reflect is constantly mobilized and goes beyond the mere understanding of a principle that would be applicable to all situations. It is rather a question of ensuring the understanding of a context of action according to the understanding shared by the subjects.
Thus revisited on the basis of Dewey’s pragmatism, philosophy is presented as a practice based on an open conception of democracy. The resulting ethics is then based on dialogue and the narration of experience, which are also at the center of the practice of philosophy and at work, in particular, in the modes of prevention and resolution of disputes, such as mediation. While some, like Richard Rorty, go so far as to argue that narration is all that remains for the philosopher to reflect on reality, the resulting dialogue must nonetheless respond to social, political and epistemological constraints. And this is where Dewey’s philosophy can help us to define these different spaces in the right way.
By developing the capacity for dialogue of children, but also of adolescents since such a program can be generalized beyond primary school, we respond to a criticism that is sometimes leveled at approaches based on the ethics of discussion, which presuppose that this capacity already exists: learning is however necessary for the transformation of the identities of action to be able to operate. One of the goals underlying the practice of philosophy for children is citizenship education, which requires developing skills through dialogue. Children are already citizens who participate in democratic life. To quote Dewey: “Education is a life process, not a preparation for life. “
Philosophy for children
First developed in the United States, the practice of philosophy for children has been implemented in some alternative schools in Quebec. It is not intended to teach the history of philosophical ideas, but rather to get children to think for themselves within a research community. Rather than providing students with ready-made solutions, it is about defining and studying problems, and teaching them to develop their reasoning and judgment skills by becoming researchers who apply a scientific method, a scientific method. experimentation according to Dewey.
In this practice, the philosophical questioning of children is aroused by the reading of stories. There are thus, for each age, many novels aiming at reasoning on the activity of thinking, the discovery of the surrounding world and the philosophy of nature, reflection on language, moral training, logical thinking and the main rules and skills of logic, introduction to ethics, introduction to aesthetics through poetry, introduction to social and political. The philosophical research community must be attentive to the possibility of refutation, through counter-arguments, and to self-correction.
In this sense, to practice philosophy in the perspective opened up by Dewey, which linked education and democracy very closely, is to accept to reflect on concepts that will be continually mobilized in civic life, concepts such as justice. , racism, inclusion and truth to name a few. It is also, as an ethical reflection conceived from a pragmatist angle supposes, reflecting on the criteria for validating our decisions, while we attach value to our choices and evaluate them in context. The philosophy thus allows children and adolescents to experience a new way of interacting with others by valuing dialogue, listening and respect. These are all elements that we will gain by integrating into all interactions of daily life.
A proven experience
The philosophy program for children also includes a component that aims to fight against violence and seeks to develop the judgment of young people in order to act on three preventive levels: 1) enable the child, through the rational means of critical thinking , to build a more solid identity, such as self-assertion, in order not only to be able to better define oneself as a subject, but also to differentiate oneself from others; 2) develop in children a more refined awareness of the different forms of violence; recognize it, name it and reflect on it; and 3) enable children to think about creating a more harmonious world, which requires a peaceful practice for this creation. By making children aware of the different aspects of violence, the program helps develop a capacity for reflection and dialogue, to avoid resorting to verbal, physical and psychological violence.
While the epistemological constructivism associated with this method may initially have aroused some criticism, some studies have shown the benefits of reflective learning where knowledge is constantly challenged and subjected to a validity test. According to studies that have been conducted to measure the effects on children who have practiced philosophy, the program improves their level of self-esteem (if only by speaking in public) and contributes to important to the development of moral reasoning and the ability to prevent violence. In particular, children learn that they are able to find their own answers to complex questions by employing a structured thought process and by being part of a research community. The practice of philosophy thus contributes to developing not only reflection on living together, on the behaviors adopted, but also to supplement education for citizenship. The practice of philosophy with children allows, moreover, to develop a competence not only dialogical, but also ethical relating to values and norms.
By offering the learning of the moral, logical and epistemological skills necessary to have a more rigorous and more moral judgment, in particular by teaching children to think, to express themselves, to justify their opinions, to deliberate and to argue in a critical manner to arrive at a rationally justified decision, philosophy for children contributes to democratic life. For these reasons, it seems to us that such a program and its derivatives should be at the center of the reformulation of the ethics and religious culture course, in accordance with the democratic experimentalism proposed by John Dewey.
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