Children, Philosophy and Democracy

Abstract

Introduction: There is much more in this work than originally meets the eye. The authors state in the introduction: Children, philosophy and democracy represents an attempt to deal with the evolution of a leading critical thinking movement to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, and some issues (primarily ethical, political, and pedagogical) that arise from this evolution (Portelli & Reed, 1995, p. ix). The book is organized around these themes, but each author is left to develop her thinking about the topics on her own, and no attempt is made to pull these very diverse essays together. While this in someway represents the current state of the Philosophy for Children movement, it also represents a lost opportunity for presenting the common elements of this diverse movement. I address each section of the book by themes and connections (articulated and unarticulated), and then move on to make some comments on some individual articles. A final (short) section of my remarks will restate some common themes across sections of this edited volume. Some themes are stated declaratively, while other potential themes must be stated as questions.