Philosophy in High School
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Spitfire
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That's what emphasis on standardized testing performance and irrational concern with things as completely irrelevant to anything as the PISA exam will do to you.Critical thinking and logic are not things the educational establishment is interested in.lain:
Yeop! Right as usual.
PureX
Well-known member
Nor the government, nor business, nor religion. So there's not much chance of it ever being taught in this country.Critical thinking and logic are not things the educational establishment is interested in.
gcthomas
New member
You get critical thinking attempted as courses in the UK, but I'd like to go the French route and have all pupils study philosophy.
| Eric Cantona: Seagulls | |
Critical thinking and logic are not things the educational establishment is interested in.
Does it use logic to explain why it is not interested in those things?
Only by the exercise of inordinate restraint, I would guess. Or perhaps he is not paying attention to TOL right now.
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Cruciform
New member
Absolutely.
“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.” ~ C.S. Lewis
Gaudium de veritate,
Cruciform
+T+
The Berean
Well-known member
"Philosophy" is a broad term. What exactly about philosophy should be taught in high school? :idunno:
zippy2006
New member
The Berean
Well-known member
Ok, but the subject of philosophy is much more than critical thinking and logic. People can be taught critical thinking and logic without learning anything about philosophy. Shoot, people could learn critical thinking and logic by taking a calculus class or a mathematical proofs class.
PureX
Well-known member
Only abstractly. I think it would be necessary to teach how to apply it to real life questions and problems, as well as other subjects of study.
I think it should be part of the foundation of an education, along with reading comprehension and writing skills. Because understanding logic and critical thinking would help students to better and more thoroughly understand everything else they need to learn. It's the difference between teaching kids what to think, and HOW to think.
A class that covers formal fallacies, informal fallacies, evaluating the arguments of other people, formulating good objections to arguments, and developing good arguments of their own.
An introductory philosophy class that covers how philosophy differs from other academic disciplines and philosophical issues associated with ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. I was thinking that the class could discuss the mind/body problem, rationalism, empiricism, freedom and determinism, ethical theories, the problem of evil and so on. Moreover, it can include how one goes about philosophizing.
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Buzzword
New member
Ehhh. I'd rather teach them rhetoric as its own subject, then.
As we've seen on far too many occasions from Traditio on this board, the deeper one goes into the study of philosophy as its own subject, the more abstract and overthought one becomes.
I agree with Purex, that critical thinking and logic should start at the primary level, along with reading comprehension and writing.
I like the idea of high school students learning to identify fallacies (a test in this hypothetical class could involve watching ten minutes of any major news broadcast and pointing out each one), especially ad hominem, No True Scotsman, and begging the question, but many of the "What is life" philosophy questions are of little use to teenagers.
That being said, I'd love to see high school students debating the philosophical points of what makes something moral or immoral.
Far too many church-sheltered individuals only have spoon-fed responses to those types of questions.
Of course, all of this would require teachers who are passionate about breaking their students away from the lockstep rank-and-file automatons that our system seems hellbent on producing en masse, and are willing to do so with very little monetary compensation, as our system also seems hellbent on driving our teachers insane.
I'd love to see it offered as an elective.
Selaphiel
Well-known member
I think philosophy should be a mandatory discipline in high school. Not just training in critical thought, conceptual analysis and logic, but also a basic introduction to the history of philosophy. If you do not understand the basics of philosophical history, you really do not understand the basis of our civilization with our concepts of law, justice and so forth (all concepts which stems from a long philosophical history). A basic understanding of ethical theory would also be good, a high school graduate should be able to offer basic argumentation for an ethical point of view.
Why do I think this should be a part of basic education? Because I think education should be about more than pushing out workers. Education should be about making citizens.
Why do I think this should be a part of basic education? Because I think education should be about more than pushing out workers. Education should be about making citizens.
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philosophy should start in the first grade
and
it does at catholic shools
and
it does at catholic shools