Abstract

KOHAN, Walter Omar  and  KENNEDY, David Knowles. On the risks of approaching a philosophical movement outside of philosophy. child.philo [online]. 2017, vol.13, n.28, pp.493-503. ISSN 1984-5987.  https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2017.29954.

Biesta states at the beginning of his intervention that he will speak "as an educationalist," outside not only of "philosophical work with children" but "outside of philosophy." What are the implications of these assumptions in terms of "what is philosophy?" and "what is education?" Can we really speak about "philosophical work with children" outside philosophy? What are the consequences of taking this position? From this initial questioning, in this response some other questions are offered to Biesta's presentation: is philosophical work with children about asking better questions or asking questions better, as he states in his presentation? Finally, risks of philosophy for children as presented by Biesta are examined: a) of being reduced to critical thinking, i.e., "to keeping a clear head"; b) that, even extended to creative and caring thinking, it could "stay in the head" and "not touch the soul"; c) that through the building of communities of inquiry in the classroom, we establish a kind of artificial setting where "we end up living in an idea about the world rather than the world". Our response ends with a last reference to Biesta's approach to education in terms of "growing" and existence in terms of a "grown-up way" of being in the world.

Keywords : philosophy with children; critical thinking; risks; dogmatic image of thinking.

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