[Bups-dis] philosophy for children

[Russo, Matteo]

In response to Paul, I would say that philosophy is that field whose definition is its lack of definition, it has no essential character aside from the questioning of what and why character exists and what its value is in other disciplines along with everything else. Philosophy encompasses and is entrenched in all forms of intellectual discourse.
It's almost like the most rudimentary or elemental tool for enquiry, in the beginning philosophy propelled and embodied all intellectual pursuit, today's vast array of disciplines are all children of philosophy but they have adopted structure and methodology where philosophy has remained amenable and unbound by method.
I don't think children could practice philosophy any more than they could practice any other discipline to a high level but they would be instilled with the foundations of the philosphical method and would thus be I think intellectually more 'well-equipped' since they would be more predisposed to the questioning of assumptions and more able to uncover them and pry the underpinnings of a given subject as opposed to accept them passively as they are taught to.
 
I definitely believe in the teaching of philosophy to children because I think everyone has an underlying 'philosophical disposition' its just that we are indoctrinated from the earliest age with countless assumptions in every field, moral, metaphysical, teleological, such that only those with the most acute form of this disposition will still be drawn to philosophy. Teaching philosophy at an early age would be a way of removing the 'dogmatic condition' which still pervades parts of society particularly with regard to religion, it would instill openess and teach the value of philosophy in itself which is vastly under-appreciated today.