초록 열기/닫기 버튼
In this paper, we will argue that the philosophical dialogue employed in the pedagogy of Philosophy for Children (P4C) is a viable tool to cultivate children’s intellectual virtues. The education for thinking which P4C aims to realize is originally to nurture children to be reasonable independent thinkers. A reasonable independent thinker would also have to acquire some attitudes or character traits appropriate for an excellent cognizer, as well as various kinds of thinking skills. Therefore the P4C pedagogy should entail the cultivation of children’s intellectual virtues. According to Heather Battaly, there are three elements necessary for developing intellectual virtues: (1) imitation of exemplar, (2) repetition of practice, (3) explanation of exemplar’s action and motivation. Analyzing the curriculum and methodology of P4C, it turns out that the P4C pedagogy effectively incorporates these three elements. Therefore it is plausible to assume that P4C contributes to the cultivation of children’s intellectual virtues. On the basis of these arguments, we will form the hypothesis that the P4C pedagogy would be an effective method of development of intellectual virtues. Finally, we will briefly explain the relevant psychological experimental research in order to verify this hypothesis.
