The New Responsibility and Challenge of Education: The Current and Prospective Situation of Philosophy for Children

Abstract

Abstract Douglas Martin (an editor) wrote a memoir in New York Times about Matthew Lipman, the founder of philosophy for children, today’s classic thinker. Lipman’s death brought attention again for the philosophy for children’s status among professionals. Later one of the most prestigious international educational periodical review, the Journal of Philosophy of Education published a special edition - on account of Lipman’s death - about the analysis of present and future problems of philosophy for children. Paul Standish, the editor in chief, enhances Lipman’s thought in the Introduction, if the ability to think critically was not established in childhood: it would be unlikely later to flourish. Hence, he hit upon the idea of teaching philosophy to children, and the course that he developed spread, in its original or derivative forms, to more than 4,000 schools in the United States and more than sixty foreign countries, its materials translated into forty languages. The question has to be answered: where is the real place, value, function - within philosophy? What is philosophy for children’s “differentia specifica”? How to make the application of philosophy for children more effective and more convincing in both research and education?