Philosophy and the Young Child (Paperback, New Ed)

A high-spirited original: Matthews shows how young children's questions can reflect a philosophical orientation that experts don't give them credit for, and he uses beguiling material to make his case. Moreover, he makes philosophical fine points accessible to readers unfamiliar with or rusty on formal techniques, and he recognizes when apparently philosophical questions reflect anxiety - or mischief - and require different kinds of responses. Philosophy professor Matthews (Univ. of Mass., Amherst) finds most appealing the young child's whimsy ("where does the pain go when it goes away?") and capacity for puzzlement ("when is an apple alive?"), and he offers many examples, beginning with questions such as these, of genuine philosophical inquiry - conceptual play. Child development experts generally deny these philosophical capacities, a shortsightedness which Matthews finds more than unfortunate. He considers Piaget, who disregards answers that don't fit his scheme, "insensitive" to puzzlement ("it is the deviant response that is most likely to be philosophically interesting"); and he chastises Bettelheim, whose comments on children's emotional responses to books he values, for failing to recognize other aspects of the reading experience, such as intellectual adventure. He suggests that certain children's books (by Carroll, Thurber, Arnold Lobel) already touch these capacities, and parents can help the process along - even if they don't think of Morris the Moose as an exercise in taxonomy and metaphysics. Fresh and playful, this is a first-rate key to important, untrampled terrority. (Kirkus Reviews)

Philosophy and the Young Child presents striking evidence that young children naturally engage in a brand of thought that is genuinely philosophical. In a series of exquisite examples that could only have been gathered by a professional philosopher with an extraordinary respect for young minds, Gareth Matthews demonstrates that children have a capacity for puzzlement and mental play that leads them to tackle many of the classic problems of knowledge, value, and existence that have traditionally formed the core of philosophical thought. Matthews's anecdotes reveal children reasoning about these problems in a way that must be taken seriously by anyone who wants to understand how children think. Philosophy and the Young Child provides a powerful antidote to the widespread tendency to underestimate children's mental ability and patronize their natural curiosity. As Matthews shows, even child psychologists as insightful as Piaget have failed to grasp the subtlety of children's philosophical frame of mind. Only in children's literature does Matthews find any sensitivity to children's natural philosophizing. Old favorites like Winnie the Pooh, the Oz books, and The Bear That Wasn't are full of philosophical puzzlers that amuse and engage children. More important, these stories manage to strip away the mental defensiveness and conventionality that so often prevent adults from appreciating the way children begin to think about the world. Gareth Matthews believes that adults have much to gain if they can learn to "do philosophy" with children, and his book is a rich source of useful suggestions for parents, teachers, students, and anyone else who might like to try.

General

Imprint:	Harvard University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	December 1980
First published:	April 1982
Authors:	Gareth Matthews
Dimensions:	203 x 130 x 9mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	115
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-674-66606-1
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Philosophy > General Books > Philosophy > General
LSN:	0-674-66606-2
Barcode:	9780674666061

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