Matthew Lipman
Overview of the philosophical richness of disciplined thinking: Matthew Lipman’s Insights.
The following notes summarize some ideas originating in Matthew Lipman’s text Growing Up with Philosophy which offers points of connection for philosophical inquiry within academic disciplines found in pre-college education. Here the focus is upon areas of disciplines which invite philosophical inquiry. You can also access our link with suggested readings which connect to the various academic disciplines.
Matthew Lipman
I. Science Education
A. What is science education?
* What does it mean to “think scientifically” as contrasted with “learning science”?
* What kinds of questions do scientists ask?
* How can we examine the world around us to become more alert to the problematic aspects of experience?
* In what ways does science nurture self-critical reflection about one’s own procedures?
* Are children and young people waiting to be given the truths about nature?
* How ought we to treat their own network of hypotheses and theories?
B. How can philosophy enhance one’s study of science?
* Where do philosophical issues emerge within science?
* What epistemological and axiological tools are used in scientific research?
Science needs to be seen not as inert fact but as dynamic, exciting, problematic
1. epistemology: introducing children to the grounds and conditions of knowledge itself (not merely facts); meanings as contextual
2. logic: given certain statements are true, what reasoning can we legitimately engage in so as to extend that knowledge?
3. metaphysics-ethics-aesthetics: distinguishing appearance from reality; why we call things “good,” “beautiful,” “right”
C. Philosophy should foster dispositions and skills that scientists need:
1. Dispositions that dispose children to engage in mental acts, verbal acts, reasoning and inquiry: to be inquisitive, to wonder, to speculate, to hypothesize, to infer.
2. Mental acts: broad continuum ranging from affective states to combinations of affective states and cognitive acts.
affective states: dread, despair, infatuation
combinations: doubting, wondering, fearing, hoping, admiring, believing, respecting
cognitive actions: supposing, wishing, surmising, remembering, conceding, judging, deciding, comparing
3. Verbal acts: utterances with a mental dimension: asserting, saying, contending, proposing, hinting, stating
4. Reasoning skills: concept formation, induction/deduction, providing reasons, constructing definitions: LOGIC
5. Inquiry skills: associated with carrying out of scientific procedures: measuring, observing, describing, estimating, predicting, explaining, verifying
II. Philosophy and the Language Arts
At the secondary level, young people should be competent and even creative readers but too often we find they are not. They have lost the enthusiasm for reading and now struggle to read at all. Although many students can decode words, they do not get a sense of what they are reading and find it tiresome. How can we recapture the enthusiasm of the young reader and pair it with a growing appreciation for the complexity of ideas? Some suggestions:
1. Establish a continuity between conversation and reading and build upon it to include writing
2. Present materials to be mastered in the form of a unified experience at the student’s own level
3. Stress meaning rather than form: language as it relates to the world, not language as relating to grammar
4. Link students’ experiences with literary experience of mankind
5. Some important language arts concepts:
Ambiguity Learning about ambiguity not only prepares the child to deal with the duplicity characterizing the world but also helps the child discover relationships of words with words, things with things, and words with things.
Relationships When we contrast and compare we explore the astonishing fact of resemblance. In one respect, cognitive development is a sorting out of contexts within which a child can function figuratively as well as literally when aware of ambiguity. Ambiguity sees difference in similarity while simile sees similarity in difference.
Similes Similes involve the claim that two things normally taken to be different are in some respects similar. Analogy claims that two relationships are alike. Young children use these figures of speech spontaneously but can benefit from a strengthening of a critical sense of appropriateness. Older students may need to recapture the linguistic flexibility and sense of adventure they enjoyed when younger.
Analogies Analogies are the heart of creative thinking. Young people need guidance and encouragement to develop and explore the construction of analogies as tools of critical as well as creative thinking.
Rule and Reason Offering rules and reasons for one’s ideas involve justifying what we do. The key is a continuous search for good reasons; even high school students need a continuation of attention to the “look and feel of illogic” and we must habituate them to search for techniques that raise questions of appropriateness, proportion and analogical fitness.
III. Social Inquiry at the Secondary School Level
Secondary level social studies introduces students to the history of people in Western and non-Western traditions. With state curricula becoming more and more factually based and intense, we must struggle to gain and retain a sense of what history means in the scope of human experience. In addition to providing students with the background knowledge necessary to understand the contextual experiences and ideas, as well as ideologies, of our contemporary world, educators must also attend to the essential need of people to make meaning out of their histories, personal and collective. Philosophy can serve to provide an avenue of exploration into the values, structures and premises upon which societies are constructed. As participants in a democracy the primary criteria of responsible citizenship is reflectiveness. As Matthew Lipman suggests, we need to explore:
reflection: nurturing proficiency in thinking skills (in making, saying, doing) in its behavioral and social dimension
responsibility: developing the capacity to respond appropriately and intelligibly when confronted with a problematic situation
Towards the end of helping young people achieve active citizenship in their communities, we might wish to begin with some broad themes which too often are assumed to be obvious and are the underpinnings of much historical and political thinking.
1. What are the Criteria for full membership within a community? Through dialogue we can begin to engage young people in the process of examining their values, their source and justification. We can encourage them to taking their place through reasoned participation with the adults in their community.
2. Government: Do students already know what ‘government’, ‘democracy’, ‘community’ are?
3. Law: How can we invite young people to explore the variations of imperatives as based on such different criteria as:
superstition: don’t walk under a ladder
custom: boys don’t wear skirts
social morality: don’t marry two people at the same time
local laws: don’t drive over 55 mph
constitutional issues: don’t discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race
religious injunctions: don’t curse
4. Social institutions: those arrangements that guide people into similar patterns of behavior. They are taken for granted but need to be examined and distinguished from government. Examples could include our patterns of education, the nature of our penal system, election procedures, patterns of church observation, role of finance in society, nature of commerce and consumerism.
5. Community: In what ways does the notion of community function for students based on their lived experiences?
6. Human nature: While no simple answer exists, much in history has hinged on what people have thought human nature was. The actions of history and government develop out of a general concept or model of human nature. Are we naturally good or evil or indifferent? How do the social institutions of a society shape and interact with human nature, if such a concept is even meaningful in our world today?
7. Freedom: The concept of freedom is a vital notion for the adolescent. How can we explore both metaphysical and social models of human freedom in ways which invite young people to engage in active reflection on their own experiences of freedom and responsibility?
8. Justice: The question of fair treatment and their place within the larger society are living issues for young people. Too often marginalized in some areas of responsibility and power and yet held accountable in others, young people struggle to find their place in society and achieve appropriate degrees of involvement and accommodation. This topic can invite them to reflect on what we might hope for in a just society and to what degree differences ought to be taken into consideration.