Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Fifth Edition, is the most comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary philosophy available. Building on the exceptionally successful tradition of previous editions, the fifth edition presents seventy substantial selections from the best and most influential works in philosophy. Revised and updated to make it more pedagogical, this edition incorporates boldfaced key terms; a guide to writing philosophy papers; and a "Logical Toolkit," which lists and explains common terminology used in philosophical reasoning. This edition also features five new readings and a separate section on existential issues.
Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialog in K-12 Classrooms is a textbook in the fields of pre-college philosophy and philosophy of education, intended for philosophers and philosophy students, K-12 classroom teachers, administrators and educators, policymakers, and pre-college practitioners of all kinds. The book offers a wealth of practical resources for use in elementary, middle school, and high school classrooms, as well as consideration of many of the broader educational, social, and political topics in the field, including the educational value of pre-college philosophy, the philosophies of education that inform this philosophical practice, and the relevance of pre-college philosophy for pressing issues in contemporary education (such as education reform, child development, and prejudice and privilege in classrooms). The book includes sections on: the expansion of philosophy beyond higher education to pre-college populations; the importance of wondering, questioning and reflection in K-12 education; the ways that philosophy is uniquely suited to help students cultivate critical reasoning and independent thinking capacities; how to develop classroom communities of philosophical inquiry and their potentially transformative impact on students; the cultivation of philosophical sensitivity and positive identity formation in childhood; strategies for recognizing and diminishing the impact of social inequalities in classrooms; and the relationship between introducing philosophy in schools and education reform.
. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.
Education is at a crossroads. While bureaucrats and teachers fight over the best way to structure and deliver education to students, much of the friction generated relates to the different conceptions of what education is about in the first place. The crisis in education is therefore of key importance and demands careful attention in order to formulate the best possible response. But before policies can be formulated, there needs to be a clear agreement on what education should be about. To this end, this collection of previously published essays facilitates just such discussion. The anthology is designed to give a snapshot of the seminal work in the philosophy of education and the input of ethical issues upon that work. It provides an authoritative tour of the profession and pivotal issues that confront it, written from a variety of international and critical perspectives.
Originally published in French as "La Philosophie, une Ecole de la Liberte. Enseignement de la philosophie et apprentissage du philosopher : Etat des lieux et regards pour l'avenir." - This study is dedicated to all those who engaged themselves, with vigour and conviction, in the defence of the teaching of philosophy a fertile guarantor of liberty and autonomy. This publication is also dedicated to the young spirits of today, bound to become the active citizens of tomorrow.
