I believe that Philosophy should be Taught in Schools at A Young age.

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exploreandrespawn

Legacy Member
I believe that philosophy should be taught in schools as a method of instructing children on the moralities of good versus evil. I like the idea of the separation of church and state. I do not want our laws based on religion. We are a melting pot. However, we still need to instruct our young on the basics of good and evil. Children want to know 'why' they should not do a thing. With religion, it's basically "do this or go to hell". I don't personally believe that, but that is how some do.

I think if we were to administer studies at a very young age, philosophy of good and bad from the great thinkers of our time, in very basic format, so a young child can understand, I think this could solve the dilemna of how to teach good versus evil without bringing in religion. What do you think?
 
I think it's too late to start teaching children about right and wrong when they get to school age, parents must be responsible for that as soon as the child becomes aware of its separate existance and the fact that it has choices of behaviour. I agree there should be classes in school to build on early training and, yes, take the religious perspective right out of it; being a good, respectful and respected human being is not the preserve of any one 'club'.
 
I certainly agree with taking religion out of schools. I do think philosophy skews the ideas of "good v.s. evil, right v.s. wrong," and you'd have to teach the concept that good and evil don't even exist as well. Still, I agree. I'm a teacher and often throw philosophy into my classes simply by asking questions and stimulating discussions. Another way is by presenting students with paradoxes (for example, Xeno's Paradox) that they can actually play out in the classroom and discuss afterwards. For me, it's not about teaching good and evil, it's about creating an environment where students see their learning as ASKING QUESTIONS rather than getting the "proper" answer, opening their mind and training it to see multiple points of view.
 
I'm not too sure about making a separate class, but I do think that the philosophy of everything should be integrated into every class, as every subject can help give a bit of insight into reality and perspective. It would probably be very stimulating for children to actually take some time to think about all these perplexing problems, rather then stay within the drone mindset of schooling.

Sadly, this probably won't be the case. Schools were created for the purpose of training citizens to become part of the workforce, not to really imbue creativity, radicalness and deviation. Schools purposely try to train children into one mindset so that they can be a uniform working population, rather then a deep thinker or anything of that kind.
 
Well, I agree with the title of this post. Children dont get any kind of formal logic training and this would be incredibly valuable for them early on. For example I meet many people who cant identify self refuting sentences like "there is no such thing as truth" and "there is no sentence in the english language longer than five words". Logic is an essential skill.

But after reading your post about how you think that philosophy will teach the basics of good and evil without religion, that is simply impossible. Unless you take something like Christian philosophy. In philosophy you have a whirlwind of philosophical ideas, including a large percentage that would say that "good and evil" dont exist. or "in the absence of God, everything is permissible". Moral relativism is very popular in philosophy so unless you want to teach that life is meaningless and that you have to create a "noble lie" for yourself, I dont think this is going to go the way you think it is going to.
 
Yeah, I think you guys have already hit the nail on the head. Philosophy, by itself, cannot be a substitute moral education. This is simply because if one defines philosophy mainly as logical thinking, that is impossible to deduce a set of concrete morals without having a set of fundamental axioms to build upon (I have yet to come across a set of axioms that can be logically derived).

Having said that however, I think there is great value in an exposure to philosophical thinking at a young age, and even just learning to ask the sort of questions that one does and talk about things the way one does in Philosophy would go a long way in supplementing the development of child's intellectual capabilities as well as the their understanding of the basic assumptions of the other subjects that are studying
 
Modera said:
Yeah, I think you guys have already hit the nail on the head. Philosophy, by itself, cannot be a substitute moral education. This is simply because if one defines philosophy mainly as logical thinking, that is impossible to deduce a set of concrete morals without having a set of fundamental axioms to build upon (I have yet to come across a set of axioms that can be logically derived).

Having said that however, I think there is great value in an exposure to philosophical thinking at a young age, and even just learning to ask the sort of questions that one does and talk about things the way one does in Philosophy would go a long way in supplementing the development of child's intellectual capabilities as well as the their understanding of the basic assumptions of the other subjects that are studying
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I agree with everything that this person said. Philosophy goes a long way in your logical thought process and understanding and is the foundation on which most other sciences were built but it cannot be the basis of morality because there is no way to deduce morality. Morals are what society and/or yourself accept to be rightful or wrong.
 
Ki Longfellow said " philosophy is religion without its clothes on", and I think she's right. So whether you teach "religion" or "philosophy", it's basically the same. Except when you say philosophy, it leans more on teaching kids to question the very thing society wants them to be, which can be confusing and misleading especially for impressionable kids. Not to mention the concept of existence would be very hard for young children to follow.
 
I agree with you about Philosophy subjects being taught in primary schools. However, I don't think Religion subjects should be vanished from the curriculum. I believe that children should be educated about the gospel: teachings of the Lord, as early as possible.
 
Philоsоphy shоuld аbsоlutеly bе pаrt оf еvеry sсhооl сurriсulum.
Thе wоrd philоsоphy соmеs frоm Grееk аnd mеаns "lоvе оf wisdоm," sо а philоsоphеr is simply sоmеоnе whо lоvеs аnd pursuеs wisdоm. Whаt grеаtеr gift соuld wе еvеr givе оur сhildrеn thаn tо сrеаtе within thеm а pаssiоn fоr knоwlеdgе, disсоvеry, аnd lеаrning,
I mаjоrеd in philоsоphy аt univеrsity, аnd whilе I dо nоt аdvосаtе thаt еvеryоnе shоuld mаjоr in philоsоphy, I dо bеliеvе thаt philоsоphy shоuld bе а dеlibеrаtе pаrt оf еvеry sсhооl сurriсulum, stаrting with еlеmеntаry sсhооl аnd соntinuing оn thrоugh univеrsity. Thе rеаsоn is bесаusе philоsоphy tеасhеs yоu hоw tо think сritiсаlly аnd lоgiсаlly.
 
Yеs! еvеrything wе tеасh оur kids, frоm lаnguаgе аnd thе аrts tо mаth аnd thе hаrd sсiеnсеs, is ultimаtеly bаsеd upоn thе sаmе undеrlying rulеs оf lоgiс, аnd if оur сhildrеn undеrstаnd thоsе rulеs, thеn thеy'll bе in а bеttеr pоsitiоn tо nоt оnly mоvе humаn knоwlеdgе аnd undеrstаnding fоrwаrd, but tо соmmuniсаtе it еffесtivеly.
Sосrаtеs is quоtеd аs sаying, "Thе unеxаminеd lifе is nоt wоrth living." I аgrее with him bесаusе, аs Friеdriсh Niеtzsсhе sаid, "If yоu hаvе yоur оwn why in lifе, аlmоst аny hоw will dо."
 
Yes I agree with this, because what we should teach to the young ones is how to build their character in the right way. Subjects for elementary should be moral and philosophy. Through philosophy we can make them realize who they are and their purpose in life, philosophical words can also teach them to be strong and brave for all the failures that they will possibly face in the future.
 
We should teach them philosophy at an early stage, it would help mould their thinking, and help their build character.

And in addition to those, their reasoning capacity will be nurtured unto well-formedness, at a early stage
 
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